The two men ran a number of companies, including Access All Areas and Rent-a-system.co.uk, that supplied unlicensed jukeboxes with illegally downloaded music and video content to pubs and clubs from their Gateshead-based company.

  Their operation had a turnover of more than £1.3m and over the course of seven years, the defendants incorporated the PPL and PRS licence fees into their customer quotations but did not make a single payment to PPL, defrauding them of approximately £550,000.

  In what is a landmark legal case, the BPI and PPL successfully prosecuted the two men and they have been given jail terms totalling more than four years.  The third defendant, Ross, was given a 36-week prison sentence, suspended for one year as part of a community order.
 
  Malcolm Wylie, 59 of Gateshead, admitted one count of distributing infringing copyright work between May 2003 and January 2009.  He was sentenced to three years in prison and banned from taking the position of director for 10 years.  His son Peter Wylie, 27, was found guilty of two counts of the same offence. He was given a nine-month prison sentence and a 15-month sentence, to run concurrently.
 
  Delivering the sentence, the judge stated unequivocally: "Intellectual property is property and stealing it is a crime."
 
  David Wood, BPI’s Director of Anti-Piracy commented after the sentencing: "This has been a significant operation undertaken by Gateshead Trading Standards with support from Northumbria Police and I would like to acknowledge their professionalism and dedication in the way they have investigated this offence.
 
  The significant sentences delivered today demonstrate that what may seem a victimless crime clearly is not.
 
  The defendants made a considerable income from supplying unlicensed and illegally downloaded music to pubs and clubs in the North of England and their actions have not only harmed the music industry but also those landlords who, in difficult economic times, believed they were paying for a legitimate service when in fact they were also being exploited."

The NADJ would like to note that Malcolm and Peter Wylie are not connected in ANY way to NADJ member, Steve Hanley, of Access All Areas Mobile Discos in Gateshead.

  Mr Hanley would like to release the following statement: "We have worked extremely hard at getting our name out there and I'm happy to say that I'm not aware of any time where the name has been detrimental in landing us any business.
 
  We are happy to continue to trade and build up our name as a genuine hard working mobile disco in the North East.  We would also like to extend our thanks to the NADJ in their unstinting loyalty and support to our disco.  We are in no way whatsoever connected with the other Access All Areas and this is all just a very unfortunate coincidence."

  Mr Hanley has the full support of the NADJ and we hope that his reputable company is not directly affected by the illigal actions of Malcolm and Peter Wylie's operations.

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