TRADING standards officers who raided a car boot sale recovered hundreds of bootleg films, a court heard yesterday.
Copies of Lord of the Rings and the soundtrack album from Moulin Rouge were among the items seized at Buttersyke Bar, Pannal, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, last October
Yesterday, Harrogate magistrates imposed fines of hundreds of pounds worth of fines to the pirates.
The stall, run by Ian Thewlis, 29, and unemployed Paul Hunter, 35, was raided in a joint operation by trading standards and police, who seized more than 450 titles of films and CDs, along with computer games including Toy Story and Star Wars Super Bombad Racing.
The two men, neighbours in Lea Farm Road, Hawksworth, Leeds, pleaded guilty to two charges of making copyright-infringing articles for sale, five of possession of items which infringed copyright and six of possession of goods with a false trademark.
Copies of Lord of the Rings film were being sold for £5.
The two men had said they had obtained some of their stock at boot sales, paying £2 for each one, and had added to it by making copies themselves.
Thewlis was fined a total of £300 with £305 costs and Hunter was fined £150 with £150 costs.
Meryle May Welch, of Woodfield Square, Harrogate, admitted three charges of making counterfeit CDs, three of possession of them and three of having goods with a false trademark. She was fined a total of £240, with £150 costs, after the court heard she had 176 discs she had made on her home computer and was selling them at £4 each, or three for £9.
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