Scousers have a bad reputation

Liverpool raids target counterfeit games and DVDs

A six-month investigation into the distribution and sale of counterfeit CDs, DVDs and computer games has resulted in 29 arrests, following a series of dawn raids in the Liverpool area. Benefit fraud was also investigated.

The operation, involving police and trading standards officers, targeted 17 addresses in Liverpool, Sefton and Skelmersdale. It was jointly conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the BPI, the film industry anti-piracy body the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association).

For the first time, suspects will face multiple criminal fraud charges, which will be collectively brought by the BPI, FACT and DWP. The operation is described by the BPI and FACT as the biggest crackdown on counterfeiters seen in the UK.

FACT states that 70 per cent of the gang's material was sold at Liverpool's 'two worst piracy hotspots', Stanley Dock and Walton Market. According to the DWP, an average counterfeit stall in Liverpool was turning over £4,000 a day.

Friends who have bought hooky DVDs here in Spain tell me that they either don’t play or have been recorded in a cinema with people’s heads bobbing up and down. I don't suppose those sold in Liverpool are much better. Mind you if a Scouser bought a dud he'd be back down the next week with his Staffordshire Bull terrier demanding his money back.