• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Man who made £2.3 million selling dodgy Sky TV boxes has been jailed

Home> News

Published 19:32 14 Nov 2022 GMT

Man who made £2.3 million selling dodgy Sky TV boxes has been jailed

Halton Powell made millions by selling TV boxes that allowed people to get Sky and Disney+ without paying

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A man has been jailed after making £2.3 million selling illegal TV boxes installed with Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, and Disney+.

Web designer Halton Mark Anthony Powell sold a load of TV boxes that had software on that allowed customers to watch all sorts of programmes including Sky and Disney shows without paying for a subscription.

He made a load of money from his enterprise over a number of years, but police eventually caught up with him and he may be facing more than a jail sentence.

Powell founded Droidsticks Ltd. back in 2013, selling off more than 24,000 of the hooky boxes for about £100 each on various websites such as eBay, a bespoke website, and other places.

Advert

Halton Powell.
City of London Police

Between 2014 and March 2016, he quite literally made millions from his illegal enterprise, before an investigation was started in 2015 when an online marketplace reported that the boxes were being sold by an account owned by the company.

In total, the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) found that he made £2,344,949 in sales.

Basically, the technology worked because the boxes had a piece of software on that was called ‘Droidsticks Wizard’ and allowed users to build their own group of add-ons to access subscription services without actually paying for them.

Of course, that’s totally illegal.

Advert

In April 2015, one of the boxes was bought from a shop in Chingford, East London by an investigator from Sky.

The police then arrested Powell shortly afterwards.

They found that he had 1,300 boxes in a storage unit as well as 121 boxes in a shop owned by Powell.

Essex Live claims that Powell refused to answer any questions during his police interview, answering ‘no comment’ to each one.

However, he did then admit supplying articles for use in fraud at Southwark Crown Court in August, for which he has now been sentenced.

Advert

PIPCU’s Detective Sergeant Peter Gartland said: “Powell attempted to hide the illegitimate nature of his business by concealing evidence that he was selling products pre-configured to stream Sky Sports and Sky Cinema.

“However, PIPCU officers were able to prove he was aware the set-top boxes were being used for this purpose by thousands of customers.

“It is vital to remember that watching premium content without a subscription is illegal – and enabling access to it can land you with a criminal record, as this case shows.”

Powell has now been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, as well as facing a confiscation hearing for any assets that he might have as proceeds of his crime.

Powell's boxes allowed people to watch Sky TV without payment.
Alamy/Timon Schneider

Advert

Matt Hibbert, SKY’s director of anti-piracy for UK and Ireland, said: “We’d like to thank PIPCU for their support in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.

“The financial sums involved and the length of the sentence handed down today underline the seriousness of this type of criminality.

“We’ll continue to work with law enforcement and our industry partners to protect consumers and take action against those organisations intent on stealing our content.”

The confiscation proceedings are set to take place on 19 May 2023.

Featured Image Credit: City of London Police

Topics: UK News, Technology, TV and Film, Disney

Tom Wood
Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

X

@TPWagwim

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

27 mins ago
13 hours ago
  • 27 mins ago

    Report into Air India crash explains what caused devastating crash killing 260

    Only one person on board survived the deadly crash last month

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Everything we know about Texas floods that have killed at least 121 as Trump arrives at disaster site

    The President and the First Lady have headed to the state one week after the horror floods wreaked havoc

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Scientists make surprising discovery at what lies under Antarctic ice sheet after its been covered in ice for 34 million years

    It could help scientists predict the future of the ice sheet

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Paedophile to be surgically castrated after raping girl, 6, in nation's shock new punishment tactic

    It comes a year after a law was passed in Madagascar permitting the controversial punishment

    News
  • Brits who use illegal 'dodgy boxes' issued Wi-Fi warning that could have major consequences
  • Police send 'we will arrest you' warning to illegal Sky Sports streamers with 'dodgy' firestick users on rise
  • British man who sold 'dodgy firesticks' to stream Premier League football jailed for three years
  • Disney made touching request to Simba Lion King star who turned down $2 million cheque from film