'World's Biggest Bootlegger' Jailed

The world's "biggest bootlegger" who ripped off some of entertainment's biggest names, has been jailed.

Mark Purseglove, 33, who pocketed £15m, was sentenced to three and a half years at London's Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday in connection with the racket. For at least 11 years he used illicit recordings made by sound engineers and concertgoers to create counterfeit CDs.

Coldplay, Oasis, The Beatles, Eminem, Madonna and the Rolling Stones were among the hundreds of artists targeted. Purseglove got professionally printed covers put on his illegal CDs and sold them at music festivals, shops and online with the help of a worldwide business contacts network, the court heard.His crimes funded a luxury lifestyle of designer clothes, expensive cars, homes and holidays. The discs were sold between December 1991 and June 2002 under record company labels such as Criminal Records, Wanted Man, Masquerade and Not Guilty.

Earlier prosecutor David Groome has told the court Purseglove sold recordings by every well known artist in the world. He regularly printed off impressive colour catalogues and sent them to clients across the globe.

Recordings were made by concert goers and sound engineers, paid to supply unauthorised tapes. Copies that cost less than a pound to produce were sold for an average of 15 times that amount and 1,500% profits made Purseglove a multi-millionaire.

In 1997 the FBI set up a classic sting operation for him and other bootleggers, taking them on an all expenses-paid trip to Disneyland with the promise of as many women as they could handle. In court he remained emotionless as Judge Timothy Pontius told him it was clear his "large-scale criminal enterprise" had "reaped very considerable financial rewards from the manufacture, importation and sale of illicit CDs".

"This enterprise is by far the largest and therefore the most serious of its particular kind to come before the courts. Very large numbers of illicit CDs were produced and sold over the years with significant potential loss. Not only to recording companies but also to performers and composers."

The judge said Purseglove had been undeterred by court injunctions and subsequent brushes with the law. A lengthy custodial sentence was required to punish him, prevent further offending and send out a deterrent to others, he said.

An additional five years will have to be served if assets of £1,827,937 were not paid by the end of March next year. Outside court, David Martin, of the British Phonographic Industry's anti-piracy unit, said: "We have been after him for 13 years and he has been a thorn in our side throughout that time. We cannot overestimate the scale of his operation. You don't get pirates any bigger than Purseglove. He probably lived a better lifestyle than some of those he ripped off. In the international bootlegging fraternity this guy is a legend, a mini-god. I am sure there is a book waiting to be written about him, maybe even a film to be made."

Sony's security adviser Bill Floydd said: "He is by far and away the biggest bootlegger the world has ever seen. Many artists will breathe more easily now he is behind bars."

Source: BBC