Shrewsbury landlord fined for showing football matches
A struggling pub landlord from Shrewsbury has been ordered to pay more than £4,000 by a court after investigators caught him illegally screening Premier League football matches on Sky Sports.
A struggling pub landlord from Shrewsbury has been ordered to pay more than £4,000 by a court after investigators caught him illegally screening Premier League football matches on Sky Sports.
Adrian Clarke, who runs the Royal Oak in Coton Hill, should have been paying a commercial rate of at least £800 per month for his subscription to the satellite giant, but he was paying less than £100 a month for a domestic service.
Clarke, who lives at the pub, admitted two charges of dishonestly receiving a programme with intent to avoid payment when he appeared at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court yesterday.
Mr Andrew Johnson, prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), said on-screen logos clearly showed visiting investigators whether customers had a domestic or commercial contract.
"In August last year an investigator visited the Royal Oak and saw a Premier League match being shown live on Sky Sports," Mr Johnson told the court, adding the logo showed a domestic service was being used.
The prosecutor said paperwork was sent out to 54-year-old Clarke in September inviting him to sign a commercial contract or opt out altogether.
An investigator returned in November and December and witnessed football matches being shown on Sky Sports 1 and 2.
Mr Johnson said the minimum Clarke should have been paying was £806.40 a month, not including VAT.
"It has an effect on neighbouring pubs who are paying the bigger prices charged by Sky," Mr Johnson told the court.
Mr Steve Matthews, for Clarke, said his client was struggling to keep his business afloat and posted an £18,000-plus loss in his last set of accounts dating back to September 2010.
"This is a Goliath v David situation – a huge corporation against a licensee struggling to keep his business open," he added.
Mr Matthews said Clarke had been on a commercial contract with Sky but it had been cancelled because he could not afford the payments.
Magistrates fined Clarke £1,600 and also ordered him to pay court costs of £2,691 and a £15 victim surcharge.