A licensee in Essex has been fined £2,400 for screening Sky Sports events in his pub with only a domestic viewing card.
Charles Stevens, landlord of The Reindeer, Braintree, has been prosecuted by film anti-piracy body Fact and had his personal licence suspended for showing the satellite television station without a relevant licence, the Morning Advertiser reports.
Mr Stevens has been ordered to pay a total of £3,000 - £2,400 in fines and £600 in costs by Chelmsford Magistrates Court, after magistrates found him guilty of three criminal offences of dishonest reception of a television transmission.
Stephen Gerrard, Fact prosecuting manager, said: "We will continue to see publicans pay substantial fines and lose their licences if they persist in breaking the law in this way. Case after case demonstrates how we are successfully pursuing and prosecuting those licensees who are fraudulently showing Sky programmes in their premises."
Sky claims that the case proves how seriously courts take breaches of television transmission rules and has reiterated its commitment to working with FACT to prosecute licensees who break the law.
Five publicans in the UK are being sued by the FA Premier League in the High Court for breaching copyright after screening live football matches without permission using a banned Arab decoder.
