Four to be sentenced after world's biggest seizure of consoles for 'chipped' computer games

Detectives searching a house in Halifax found hundreds of machines which were being adapted so that they could operate counterfeit video

games.

The investigation also uncovered fake DVDs and designer clothing, as well as dozens of stolen televisions and laptop computers.

A West Yorkshire Police source said the pile of more than 400 consoles – which included Nintendo Wii, Xbox and PlayStation machines – was believed to be the largest seizure of its kind worldwide. Almost half of them had already been "chipped", or adapted, when officers searched the house in July 2007, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.

Jonathan Carroll, prosecuting, said the search was ordered after trading standards officers twice bought counterfeit DVDs from Aamer Ali's market stall in Halifax.

The case also involved Ali's brother Yassar, their cousin Murtaz Ali, and a man who worked on the stall, Naveed Zaman.

The court heard that the two-year police investigation found that flatscreen televisions and laptops which Aamer Ali was offering for sale had been stolen from lorries in the Midlands only hours previously.

In June last year police raided a Dewsbury property which Aamer Ali had been renting and found a "factory for counterfeiting", featuring hundreds of computer disks.

Aamer Ali, 26, of Rhodes Street, Pellon, has admitted producing and selling counterfeit games, possessing chipped games

consoles and handling stolen goods.

Yassar Ali, 23, and Murtaz Ali, 31, both also of Rhodes Street, have pleaded guilty to charges of possessing equipment to allow consoles to play counterfeit games and possessing counterfeit clothing respectively.

Zaman, 24, of Richmond Road, Halifax, has admitted handling stolen goods.

The four men are to be sentenced at two Leeds Crown Court hearings, to be held today and tomorrow.