A 52-year-old British man was arrested by local police on suspicion of fraud and money laundering in connection with an illegal broadcast operation involving programming from Sky television.
The man, who was not named, was detained by police in the northeast England town of Stockton-on-Tees following a raid on a business there.
According to investigators, the business is believed to be connected to a large-scale pirate TV operation in which copyrighted programming from Sky’s pay services were distributed illegally through the Internet.
The police operation was organized by the North East Regional Organized Crime Unit (NEROCU). A spokesperson claimed illegal streaming TV services “help fund wider organized crime such as human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, drug supply and other sinister crimes,” though the agency offered no specific evidence to support this.
Still, NEROCU Detective Sergeant James Woodcock said the agency will continue to carry out operations that disrupt illegal pirate TV operations like the one it busted earlier this month. Woodcock said customers of illicit pirate TV services should be aware of certain risks associated with those products, including “fraud, scams, exposure to inappropriate content, viruses, and malware.”
Matt Hibbert, the Director of Anti-Piracy at Sky’s UK and Northern Ireland businesses, said the organization welcomed the efforts of local law enforcement.
” We’d like to thank the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit for taking robust action to tackle illegal streaming, bring those responsible to justice, and help keep consumers safe from risks of accessing illegal content,” Hibbert said in a statement.
Sky operates pay television services via satellite and Internet streaming. The company was acquired by Comcast in 2018.
