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A man has been jailed for his role in a £1 million illegal TV streaming operation after police stormed his home.
Stephen Woodward sold illegal access to copyrighted material, including Sky Sports and BT Sports, spending the proceeds on holidays, designer clothes, and a £91,000 Jaguar F-Type V8.
The 36-year-old used the websites IPTV Hosting, Helix Hosting, and Black and White to provide illegal access to the channels, and would sell subscriptions via card payments, StokeonTrentLive reports.
A total of 13 different PayPal accounts owned by Woodward would receive the payment, as well as payment services such as Circle.
After receiving the money, he would convert it into Cryptocurrency and then back into regular currency before depositing it in 23 banks accounts.
In November 2019, Woodward was arrested and would plead guilty to distributing articles infringing copyright as well as four money-laundering offences. He was sentenced to three years and one month in jail.
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His younger brother Christopher Woodward, 34, received £126,000 as a result of the operation, pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to 15 months in jail suspended for 12 months as well 240 hours of unpaid work.
Police investigating the operation also secured an all-assets restraint order over some £1.1 million held by the elder Woodward brother. Some £144,121 worth of cash was also seized from him in the investigation, and this was frozen.
The force searched Stephen Woodward’s home upon his arrest, seizing a computer, a hard drive.
Officers also seized around 100 envelop which each contained a SIM card with a name written on it. These SIM cards had been used by the elder Woodward to open PayPal and bank accounts under false identities, which he purchased, online.
Stephen Woodward was released under investigation as police continued their enquiries.
