“Three Britons among 14 arrested as illegal TV scam broken up in Alicante
By h.b. - Sep 25, 2008 - 8:09 AM
The Judicial Police from the Torrevieja Guardia Civil has broken up an international gang which had been pirating British satellite television signals and then distributing them to British clients resident in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and Almer?a in an area between Benidorm and Vera.
The group, based in an industrial estate at Algorfa, Alicante, had more than 60,000 clients, most of them British who paid 590 ? for the installation of the system and then a monthly subscription of between 18 and 22 ?. A total of 500 million ? is thought to have been defrauded by the group which made no tax payments to Hacienda.
A total number of 14 people have been arrested, including eight Spaniards, three Britons and a Byelorussian, Rumanian and Russian.
Investigations started following a complaint placed by Sogecable, the owners of the Spanish Digital Plus satellite system.”
Source:
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_18168.shtml
“500 Million Reasons Why Telmicro HAD TO GO
Written by Louise Clarke
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Six weeks after the televisions of over 60,000 people were unceremoniously switched off, the Guardia Civil have broke their silence about the closure of Telmicro and the reasons behind it.
Issued on their website two days ago, the statement gave previously unreleased background information, including video footage and details of what offences had been made and what charges have been brought and against whom.
They stated that an international network of people have been charged with defrauding the Hacienda by the rebroadcast of ‘deprived channels of television’. They also stated that the organisation has been charged with fraud to the value of more than 500 million euros. Fourteen members of the network; eight Spaniards, three British nationals, a Belarus national, a Romanian and a Russian were arrested after they were found to be obtaining the satellite signals of British television channels illegally. The statement read; ‘They then re-broadcast to customers from the United Kingdom who live along the coast from Alicante to Almeria, without paying the corresponding copyrights and without declaring their profits to the Hacienda.’
Complaints
The Guardia Civil also confirmed that computer equipment was seized including specialist technical equipment which had been used to receive and transmit television channels as well as decoders, mixers and more than five million euros in cash. The Guardia Civil operation, which was named ‘Operation Cimitarra’, was carried out in the provinces of Alicante, Murcia and Almeria and they stated that they had ‘effectively dismantled the network that was dedicated to re-broadcasting television channels that were fraudulently obtained from British origin to residents residing in the coast of the afore mentioned provinces.’ It is believed that the fraud against the Hacienda for which the company is responsible could surpass 500 million euros. The operation was focussed on the three companies that made up Telmicro Levante S.L. who had acquired the legal rights to transmit British television channels here in Spain. The company had also declared far less customers than it really had and in addition distributed the British television signals in Spanish territory illegally and without having the rights to do so.
Undercover
The investigations began as a result of a denuncia which was presented and displayed by a legal representative of Sogecable who, as Round Town News mentioned in last week’s article, is the group that owns Digital Plus. They had detected that certain transmissions of British channels in the province of Alicante were those very channels whose ownership of the audio-visual rights in Spain corresponded exclusively to them. The statement continued; ‘After an undercover investigation into the infrastructure used by the Telmicro organisation, it was possible to verify that a very large satellite dish, which was located in an industrial estate near to Los Montesinos and Algorfa was being used.’ The Guardia also confirmed that were quickly able to ascertain that Telmicro had powerful satellite dishes and decoders for a company that only transmits in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They stated; ‘The technicians captured the signal of several British television channels by decoding them and they then returned the coded signal using a denominated system called ‘Irdeto’ to later distribute it to all their clients along the coast from Benidorm to Vera in Almeria, through a network of mesh dishes and receivers.’
Confirmation
The statement confirmed; ‘More than 60,000 clients paid either annually or monthly and the majority of its clients, who were primarily British settlers in Spain. They also paid ?590 for installation.’ The statement went onto say that the company did have some television channels which they had authorisation to show but only to a limited number of clients.
They had only paid for the rights to show those channels to a specific number of customers and as they failed in this commitment to these companies, since the real number of clients was far beyond what was actually declared by the organisation, they were charged with fraud and in the same way, they also defrauded the Hacienda by declaring gains corresponding to only 17,000 clients, instead of over 60,000 which was actually counted. The investigations were carried out by the team of Judicial Police in the Guardia Civil of Torrevieja and it is expected that the court case involving the fourteen people who have been charged, will take place next year.”
source:
http://www.roundtownnews.co.uk/in…k=view&id=16426&Itemid=34
