Mum sold fake DVDs

2:03pm Thursday 7th September 2006

A single mother turned to selling pirate CDs and DVDs on internet auction site, eBay when she was overcome by a "mountain" of debt.

Kelly Louise Smith, aged 23, began selling the fakes in November 2005 for £2 and £5 each, Bolton Magistrates' Court heard.

Her criminal activity was discovered when undercover trading standards officers bought two CDs and one DVD from her in January 2006.

After the goods were found to be fake officers raided her home in Parkfield Avenue, Farnworth, and discovered two personal computers and CD and DVD rewriters. Evidence of her illegal trading on eBay was discovered on the computers while officers found 235 fake CDs and 38 DVDs.

The court heard Smith had made £1,500 from her illegal operation.

Anthony Shimmin, defending, said: "She has hit some very hard times and she supports a child alone. She has debts.

"Those debts became a mountain that she thought she could never climb. It was suggested to her that copying CDs and DVDs was easy."

Mr Shimmin said that Smith had done it to support herself, not to buy clothes or support a lifestyle. "This has been a salutary lesson," he added.

Smith was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £150 in costs on top of a previous fine she is paying for another offence. Her computer equipment will be destroyed.