Police to visit 1,000 homes in crackdown on illegal Premier

Police will visit 1,000 homes this week as part of a massive crackdown on illegal television streaming.

They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation and will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution. This latest clampdown against 1,000 individuals comes after raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service offering entertainment and sports via modified boxes, so-called “ fire sticks” and subscriptions.

The new purge is against people who try to watch Premier League games, football from all over Europe and other sports and movies on the cheap.

Police have joined forces with anti-piracy investigators from FACT in “Operation Raider” and the knock on the door is likely to come as a huge shock. They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching in one of the biggest clampdowns ever on illegal streaming.

Two individuals, Paul Faulkner and Stephen Millington, were sentenced to a total of 16 months for watching illegal streams in 2021. Investigators say there is a clear link between illegal streaming services and fraud, scams and organised crime.

The crackdown comes with the support of major organisations like the Premier League and broadcasters such as Sky, BT Sport and Amazon, but it has been led by the police and FACT, which was set up to stop piracy in the TV and film industry.

Detective Inspector Matt McNellis, of West Mercia’s Cyber Crime Specialist Operation, said: “We are able to deploy cutting-edge digital tactics to identify and detect people who break the law before carrying out enforcement activity in concert with our partners.

“Often, illegal streaming is used to fund Serious Organised Crime and West Mercia Cybercrime Unit is committed to interdicting this source of criminal revenue and reducing the harm organised crime groups can do to our communities.”

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Accessing films, TV series and live sports events from unauthorised sources is illegal, can expose consumers to risks such as data theft and malware, and can help fund organised criminal groups.”

FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp, added: “We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution.”

Get yourself a VPN. I use Nord, and I can also recommend Proton.

I had a 5k fine in 2008 and a £1800 fine in 2015 but was well worth it in my pubs , I had sky bt sports legally but the revenue form the city 3pm was brilliant.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

From your cache & cookies, and IP address it's quite easy to identify. If you're using a VPN and an incognito browser, it's a lot harder.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

Weren't those Television Licence detector vans that patrolled the streets all for show? They didn't actually detect signals recieved did they?

This for the iptv devices?
as opposed to using the legitimate city app but "being abroad" for 90 minutes?

Meanwhile Paedos are freely peddling their vile sick shit but we are the criminals for watching shit football, ffs wish the old bill would go after the politicians f*cking us over and white collar crime elitists and pharma, and resource rich kents rather than the working man.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

Weren't those Television Licence detector vans that patrolled the streets all for show? They didn't actually detect signals recieved did they?

Thats right. They were vans with windows in them and equipment inside that looked like it had been taken from an old Dr.Who set. And a forked shape ariel thing on top to supposedly detect the signals

My wife didnt believe they worked. either. She once said - and i swear this is true- "How can they possibly detect whether you have a TV licence inside a draw in a cupboard in your house!!!

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

Weren't those Television Licence detector vans that patrolled the streets all for show? They didn't actually detect signals recieved did they?

Thats right. They were vans with windows in them and equipment inside that looked like it had been taken from an old Dr.Who set. And a forked shape ariel thing on top to supposedly detect the signals

My wife didnt believe they worked. either. She once said - and i swear this is true- "How can they possibly detect whether you have a TV licence inside a draw in a cupboard in your house!!!

Brilliant.
My wife did a similar one during the days before Sky tv etc when at the end of the news they’d say ‘if you don’t want to know the result then look away now’.
I looked away. My wife asked if I was going to bed, I replied no I was watching the footy.
Her reply (I kid you not) I’m not going to tell you the score but you may as well come up as there’s no goals !!!!

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

I’ve not had a license for decades, when the enforcement guy called I’d left my gate open and he just breezed into my garden. I informed him “your implied right of entry has been revoked, I want you to leave my property” I then gently put my hand round his shoulder and walked him out the gate. Apart from HMRC nobody has the right to enter your property, they’d need a warrant and a police officer to enforce it.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

Weren't those Television Licence detector vans that patrolled the streets all for show? They didn't actually detect signals recieved did they?

Thats right. They were vans with windows in them and equipment inside that looked like it had been taken from an old Dr.Who set. And a forked shape ariel thing on top to supposedly detect the signals

My wife didnt believe they worked. either. She once said - and i swear this is true- "How can they possibly detect whether you have a TV licence inside a draw in a cupboard in your house!!!

Brilliant.
My wife did a similar one during the days before Sky tv etc when at the end of the news they’d say ‘if you don’t want to know the result then look away now’.
I looked away. My wife asked if I was going to bed, I replied no I was watching the footy.
Her reply (I kid you not) I’m not going to tell you the score but you may as well come up as there’s no goals !!!!

They would get on well together.

Meanwhile Paedos are freely peddling their vile sick shit but we are the criminals for watching shit football, ffs wish the old bill would go after the politicians f*cking us over and white collar crime elitists and pharma, and resource rich kents rather than the working man.

Quite right, and if some tw*t breaks into your house, don't expect the old bill to investigate, too busy checking what people are saying and thinking.

I remember the 'home taping is killing music' campaign in the 80's and 'Piracy Kills Music' one when downloading torrents was in. I can't see how going after consumers is ever going to work, it's been tried before with torrents but never worked so they went after sites like the Pirate Bay and also closed down other sites. But others popped up and then streaming came in, it will never be beaten as there's always new tech and ways of doing it. I'm actually surprised some of the free streaming apps haven't been closed down though, a few I use have been around for a while and are superb.

I’m no expert but wouldn’t this take a hell of a lot of proving? Police at door, can we come in? Warrant? Yes , pull fire stick out when conversation is happening on doorway. What can they do then?

Which is presumably why they will be warning. They would need a warrant - cant see them getting a 1000 of them - and need to prove the ownership of said firestick or whatever as you cant be convicted if you are watching Coronation Street in the lounge whilst your boy is upstairs streaming it.

Its like the old TV detector van. They would drive around the streets and park them in full view of everyone as a warning.

Weren't those Television Licence detector vans that patrolled the streets all for show? They didn't actually detect signals recieved did they?

Thats right. They were vans with windows in them and equipment inside that looked like it had been taken from an old Dr.Who set. And a forked shape ariel thing on top to supposedly detect the signals

My wife didnt believe they worked. either. She once said - and i swear this is true- "How can they possibly detect whether you have a TV licence inside a draw in a cupboard in your house!!!

Brilliant.
My wife did a similar one during the days before Sky tv etc when at the end of the news they’d say ‘if you don’t want to know the result then look away now’.
I looked away. My wife asked if I was going to bed, I replied no I was watching the footy.
Her reply (I kid you not) I’m not going to tell you the score but you may as well come up as there’s no goals !!!!

They would get on well together.

To beat that, watching g ‘This Morning’ just now and they were saying that it’s the first Friday 13th of the year today with the other one being in October.
I said ‘they didn’t say what date in October it is’. Yup, she looked at the diary on her phone to check and tell me ‘It’s Friday October 13th’.