A Co Antrim man was yesterday (Friday) jailed for nine months for running a Sky digibox streaming racket from his kitchen.
Adrian Kidd, 42, of Carntall Road, Ballyclare, was told he would serve a further nine months on supervised licence on his release from prison.
The father-of-five had pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud Sky Ltd, selling or hiring unauthorised decoder boxes, possessing articles in connection with fraud and converting criminal property.
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His 41-year-old wife Kelly Kidd was handed a 12-month sentence suspended for three years after she pleaded guilty to allowing her PayPal account to be used to deposit the proceeds of the fraud.
She further admitted fraudulently obtaining almost £17,000 in Employment Support Allowance payments while “receiving large sums of money” into her account from the Sky scam.
Belfast Crown Court heard that police searched the couple’s home on September 22, 2017, under warrant as part of an investigation into the unlawful supply of Android TV digiboxes. Prosecution barrister Jim Johnston said police found nine Android boxes and computer equipment.
He told Judge Neil Rafferty QC that a Sky investigator examined the boxes and discovered they had been reconfigured to access Sky’s premium streaming service which cost £960 per year.
The court heard that police also uncovered a list of Kidd’s 2,200 customers. Sky Ltd had suggested that the potential loss to it if all 2,200 customers had subscribed to its premium service was £2.2 million.
But Judge Rafferty said that this was a “highly unlikely scenario” as Kidd’s clients were buying the boxes from him as they could not afford the Sky package.
“It may well be that a very small fraction of that customer base would have gone on to take out any package with Sky,” said Judge Rafferty.
“The gross turnover obtained by Mr Kidd was in the region of £93,000. But his defence counsel has pointed that out of that he would have had to purchase the digiboxes and reconfigure them.
“However, the reality is that Mr Kidd was involved in an active programme of re-chipping and reconfiguring digiboxes to perpetrate a fraud and loss to Sky and this offending lasted almost two years.”
Judge Rafferty said that Kelly Kidd’s involvement was “turning a blind eye” to the fraud by allowing her PayPal account to be used for depositing money from the racket.
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