A man who illegally streamed dozens of Premier league football matches walked free from court.
Peter Dilworth, 36, from Wirral, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, November 1, after he was found to be operating Marvel Stream UK, a service provided access to Premier League matches and Sky Sports and BT Sport broadcasts. FACT, the UK’s leading intellectual property protection organisation, initially started its investigation into Dilworth in January 2021.
After receiving intelligence from the Premier League about the streaming service, the company worked with Merseyside Police to identify Dilworth as the operator of the service. In March, Merseyside Police arrested and interviewed him and searched his home.
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He was later charged with enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures and possessing criminal property. He pleaded guilty when attending court and received an eight month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months
He is also required to carry out 25 days rehabilitation, 120 hours of unpaid work, and six months of drug rehabilitation requirements.
Kevin Plumb, General Counsel for the Premier League said: "We would like to thank Merseyside Police for all their work and support on this case. The successful prosecution would not have been possible without them acting on our intelligence and ultimately arresting the operator.
"The vast majority of our fans watch Premier League action via authorised sources but those who don’t must be aware this is not only an illegal activity that can lead to custodial sentences but also one that leaves them at risk of becoming victims of hacking, viruses, and fraud. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement to tackle piracy of our content and to educate fans on the dangers of watching Premier League matches via unauthorised streams."
"FACT work with sports rights holders, broadcast partners, and others across the broadcast industry to investigate and prosecute suppliers of illegal streaming services and other piracy crimes, as well as those accessing illegal content. Dilworth’s sentencing follows the recent sentencing of Michael Hornung, formerly of Manchester who received a 4 year and six months prison sentence and a Confiscation Order of £258,000 for selling and advertising unauthorised decoders that were enabled to access unauthorised channels from Virgin’s cable subscription service, including Sky Sports and BT Sport."
Merseyside Police Detective Constable Gareth Jones said: "We welcome this sentence, which shows the value of working closely with our partners in law enforcement. Dilworth made a considerable amount of money from his dishonesty, and we are glad that this joint investigation has resulted in such a positive outcome.
"Illegal streaming is far from a victimless crime, and as well as the impact it has on the businesses and content creators, essentially means that legitimate subscribers pay for those who illegally access such services. We will use all available powers and continue to work with FACT to identify and put anyone else who sees intellectual property theft as a criminal opportunity before the courts."
FACT Chief Executive Kieron Sharp said: “This is another step forward in the right direction in tackling the issue of illegal streaming, and we thank Merseyside Police for their work on this. Their support and assistance in procuring evidence for this prosecution was vital for the outcome of this case.
“As clearly shown by this result, enabling illegal access to streaming content is a crime with serious consequences, in this case, a criminal conviction plus a sentence of 8 months. It is also extremely risky and dangerous, exposing users to malware, viruses, identity theft, inappropriate content, and financial losses”.
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