A bootlegger from Maldon has been jailed for running the biggest music racket ever in this country.

Alan Williams could have netted £1 million through his illegal compact disc business but a court heard how he is now a ruined man.

Williams, 39, is expected to lose his house and his licence as a market trader. There will also be an extensive probe into his financial affairs.

Williams changed his plea to guilty halfway through his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on a charge of conspiring to infringe music copyright laws. Judge Gareth Hawkesworth jailed him for 21 months on Friday.

"You set about running a commercial business importing CDs of popular music and selling them both wholesale and retail when you knew full well you were infringing the copyright of record companies," the judge told Williams.

"It is as much theft as walking into the offices of recording companies and stealing their property. As with most fraudsters, part of your aim was self-enrichment."

The court heard how test purchases by Essex Trading Standards from a stall run by Williams at Chelmsford market led to a major haul of fake CDs, cassettes and artwork being stored in a chicken shed in June 1997.

More than 55,000 compact discs, 1,200 cassette tapes and 200,000 pieces of artwork and packaging were discovered at the shed at a farm shed in Heybridge, after a swoop by police and trading standards.

The CDs and tapes - including The Beatles and ABBA - had been imported from Europe and the United States and the vast majority of them broke strict music copyright laws.

More items were found at the home of Williams, of Wentworth Meadows, Maldon, the court heard.

The CDs had been bought for one dollar each - about 58p - and then sold for between £7 and £12 and David Groome, prosecuting, said Williams could have netted between £500,000 and £1 million through the racket.

"Not one penny went to the composer, artist or the record company," Mr Groome said. "Not only were they being ripped off, but the public were being ripped off as well," he added.

Mark Wyeth, mitigating, told the court Williams had lost everything.

Raymond Coppen, 45, of Chestnut Avenue, Hatfield Peverel, was cleared on the conspiracy charge after the judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict after the prosecution decided to offer no further evidence against him. He was formally discharged.

Operation warning to pirates

The arrest and prosecution of 39-year-old Alan Williams was the result of a lengthy operation jointly carried out by Essex Trading Standards, the British Phonographic Institute (BPI) and Essex Police.

Chris Sheehan, a member of the trading standards team, said: "It sends out massive signals to the pirates still in operation in the county. It is defrauding the people and that cannot be allowed.

"It was because of the overwhelming evidence this man was put away, which proves we have done our job properly. He contested every bit and in the end had to plead guilty because the prosecution answered everything.

"It is an excellent result, we are very satisfied with the outcome." He said the operation had succeeded because of great liaison between trading standards, the BPI and Essex Police.

The private prosecution was funded by the BPI, which will now be able to claim back the cost of the operation from Williams.

Roz Gough, legal adviser for the BPI, said: "The main point of piracy in general is that it is detrimental to everyone involved in the music industry. That means it affects the artist, the composers of the music and lyrics right through to those who work for the record companies.

"Williams was importing from Europe and America and distributing to a wide area over here and it is not clear what sort of permanent damage he may have done if he had continued."

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