A social recluse who ran an internet piracy scam from his bedroom put the movie industry at risk of losing £120 million, a court in Derry has heard.
Paul Mahoney (30) made almost £300,000 through advertising revenue generated from illegal sites offering access to the latest films and TV shows, many before general release, a judge was told at a pre-sentence hearing.
During the six years in which partially blind Mahoney operated the online racket, he claimed in excess of £12,000 in state benefits. When police officers searched the home, where he lived with his parents, they found almost £82,400 in cash hidden away, a prosecution lawyer said.
Mahoney, from Carnhill in Derry, has pleaded guilty to a number of offences, including conspiracy to defraud the film industry. At the pre-sentence hearing in Derry’s Crown Court before Judge Philip Babington, prosecutor David Groome QC said the money involved in Mahoney’s “sophisticated fraud” was “quite staggering”.
He highlighted forensic examination of the defendant’s computers and internet history that showed in one six-month period illegal movie copies accessed through his website were viewed 1.1 million times.
Mr Groome said: “During the six-year life of the defendant’s business that equates to something like movies being viewed on 12 million occasions. If you consider it is about £10 to go to the cinema or about £10 to buy a brand new DVD upon its release, it means the defendant’s websites enabled users of it to view about £120 million worth of property.” He acknowledged this “fraud risk” figure would be slightly different from actual losses by the film industry – as not everyone who viewed something illegally would necessarily have paid to watch it.
The investigation against Mahoney was led by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) with the PSNI.
The court heard Mahoney started his business in 2007 and, over the next six years, he changed his website name three times to evade detection. During this period, Mahoney was served with a cease and desist notice by Fact and was arrested twice by the PSNI. Despite these interventions, he continued to run the fraud, the court heard.
His websites offered users links to third-party servers on which the illegal movie and TV show copies had been uploaded. The court heard Mahoney also operated one of these servers and found illegal content on others by using complex software he paid others to develop for him.
Mr Groome said the defendant had six contracts with advertising agencies, with many of the ads on his sites promoting online betting companies.
Judge Babington said he would pass sentence on September 8th. – (PA)