Two brothers who ran an illegal streaming operation that offered subscriptions to Sky have been jailed.
Amir Butt, aged 56 from Ilford, was sentenced to seven years in prison and his brother Ammar Hussain, aged 39 also from Ilford, was sentenced to four years after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud over a seven-year period from August 2012 to March 2019.
Butt and Hussain ran their operation from Butt’s home on Grange Road, Ilford and a shop on Cranbrook Road in the Essex town on the outskirts of London.
The pair sold annual subscriptions, which provided access to a range of sports and entertainment content, for £200 each. They were believed to have thousands of customers, generating hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue and depriving legitimate tv providers more than £1 million.
Matt Hibbert, Sky’s Group Director of Anti-Piracy said the sentencing highlighted “the significant consequences for those that get involved in illegally streaming content.”
“This verdict is both a punishment to the two men committing these criminal acts and a deterrent to others who are engaged in similar activities,” added Kieron Sharp, CEO, FACT.
Butt failed to appear and was sentenced in his absence.
