Pirate DVDs get turned into garden furniture

Diigo

BOOTLEG Hollywood blockbusters worth £50,000 that were seized in Plumstead will be turned into garden furniture. Police and trading standards officers found more than 12,000 counterfeit DVDs, including copies of gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain and discs falsely claiming to be controversial religious film The Da Vinci Code, at houses in Plumstead Common Road and Jago Close.

Cops on the raid were joined by piracy enforcers from the Federation Against Copyright Theft.

Officers also confiscated 240 packs of counterfeit rolling tobacco, cash and mobile phones.

The addresses were thought to be storage facilities for discs hawked by Chinese immigrants on the streets of South-east London.

Copies of The Da Vinci Code - which is not due for release in UK cinemas until Friday looked like the real thing.

Closer examination revealed they were an American documentary debunking the theory behind Dan Brown's best-selling book.

Members of Shooters Hill safer neighbour-hood team have hailed the haul as a major blow against the sale of DVD copies. They say the fakes will be impounded and later recycled as garden furniture.

PC Cliff Graham, of the safer neighbourhood team, said: "It's satisfying to think that we've not only struck a blow against crime syndicates, hitting the organisers squarely in the pocket, but the discs have been seized and will be recycled into garden furniture.

"Remember, when you are sitting on the patio this summer enjoying the barbecue and a glass of chilled wine, you can relax with your recycled table and chairs and toast your safer neighbourhood team."

Greenwich council's director of community safety and enforcement, Mike Smith, said the haul was unusual.

He added: "This is the first time we have come across counterfeit discs that don't do 'exactly what it says on the tin', as a famous advert says.

"Those people found running this scam will be reported to the Immigration Service and we hope that items we seized in the operation will help us to track down people further up the supply chain."

A police spokesman said a number of Chinese people living at the addresses had been referred to the Immigration Service.

No criminal charges are believed to have been brought.

Diigo