A BRIT man who went on the run after being sentenced to five years behind bars for operating an illegal streaming service has finally be caught.
And police have issued a stark warning to anyone offering the same services.
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Mark Brockley, 56, pocketed £300,000 for illegally streaming football games on the cheap, including Premier League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches.
He ran aFINITY IPTV for around five years, between 2014 and 2019, with premium sport, movies and TV for as little as £15 a month.
Brockley was arrested and later charged with fraud and copyright offences at Liverpool Crown Court in June 2021.
After being released on police bail, he failed to appear at multiple court hearings, and sentencing proceeded in his absence in May 2023.
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He fled the country with his dog before being traced to an apartment block in Spain.
The illegal streaming fugitive was arrested in the city of Girona during a coordinated operation involving the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol, and Interpol in August 2024.
Brockley was released pending further investigation having appealed his extradition back to the UK, City of London Police said.
But he failed to show up at multiple court hearings in Spain and was eventually identified as wanted by Spanish authorities.
Brockley was finally arrested at Barcelona Airport while attempting to board a flight to the UK on June 20.
He was held in custody at Heathrow Airport and will now commence his five-year sentence.
“This case is a clear example of how PIPCU, together with our national and international partners, will relentlessly pursue those seeking to profit from intellectual property crime,” said Detective Constable Geoff Holbrook from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit at City of London Police.
“Thanks to the joint efforts of the NCA, Europol and Interpol, Brockley has finally been brought to justice, despite his attempts to evade accountability.”
Warning over ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks
Illegal streaming can be delivered by a number of devices by one of the most common are ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks, which means a third-party media server software has been installed on to it.
The software most commonly used is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
But it becomes illegal when a box is used to stream subscription channels for free.
It is also illegal to buy or sell these modified devices which have become known as “fully-loaded” – a term that describes how the software has been altered to allow access to subscription-only channels.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”
