A UK man has been jailed for 16 months after an illegal streaming operations was busted.

Mr Paul Faulkner who ran the operation which offered illegal access to Premier League football appeared in front of Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday 6 July having plead guilty to multiple copyright and fraud offences, including accessing pirate content for his own use.

Faulkner ran subscription-based IPTV service TV Solutions, a pirate streaming service who offered illegal access to sports and entertainment broadcast content, including live Premier League matches and Sky channels.

Premier League General Counsel Kevin Plumb said: “This sentencing demonstrates yet again that the courts take piracy crimes seriously and there are significant consequences for criminals involved in all forms of piracy. Legal action will be taken against those supplying unauthorised access to Premier League football, regardless of the size or scale of the pirate operation,”

“This defendant was also given a separate four-month prison sentence for simply watching the unauthorised service. If it were needed, this should dispel any misconception that watching pirate streaming services is a grey area or is not an offence in any way,”

“The Premier League’s significant financial support for the entire football pyramid and wider communities is made possible through being able to sell and protect our broadcast rights. We are pleased that, through judgments such as this, courts continue to recognise the importance of the protection of our copyright.”