MUMBAI: A Southall businessman – Tahir Javed – has been awarded a nine month sentence by a local British court, which found him guilty of dealing in counterfeit DVDs.

Javed has also been ordered to do 50 hours of unpaid work and to pay up £1000 in court costs after a raid on his shop on Featherstone Road, Southall, earlier this year, yielded pirated Bollywood, Hollywood and pornographic DVDs.

At a hearing in the Isleworth Crown Court on 29 January, Javed pleaded guilty to the various offences under Section 92 of the Trademarks Act 1994 in two separate cases brought by the council and police. The nine month sentence has since been suspended for two years.

The 7503 DVDs, 428 video cassettes and 198 DVD inlays seized by the Ealing Council Trading Standards and police will now be destroyed and the materials will be recycled, says an official release.

Councillor Will Brooks, cabinet member for environment and transport, who has responsibility for trading standards, has said that if Javed attempts to revert back to old habits, “He will find himself in jail for nine months, so this is a strong result for the council and police.”

Community and Partnership Superintendent Ian Jenkins, of Ealing Borough Police, has said that Ealing Borough Police would urge people who buy pirate DVDs thinking that it is harmless, to consider what their money is funding and ask themselves if they want to be funding criminals and criminality.