Warning sent out as man jailed after making '£100,000 a month' from illegal streaming on 'dodgy' firesticks

Fans have again been warned against using firesticks to illegally stream live sports after a man was jailed.

It was recently reported that a man named Stephen Woodward has been jailed for playing a part in a £1 million illegal streaming operation.

According to the BBC, Woodward was selling illegal access to copyrighted material, including films, music and TV channels which included premium sports content, for over seven years.

The 36-year-old is believed to have spent the money he earned on designer clothes, holidays and a Jaguar car worth £91,000.

In addition, it has been stated that Woodward sent £126,000 of illegal funds to his brother, Christopher, who has received a suspended prison sentence for money laundering.

York Crown Court heard that Woodward had bought false identities online to set up a number of PayPal and bank accounts.

Woodward was arrested back in 2019 after setting up an illegal website, IPTV Hosting.

In 2020, Woodward was arrested for money laundering before being detained by Border Force at Gatwick airport while attempting to board a flight to Vancouver in 2022.

In apparent messages sent to brother Christopher, Woodward claimed that he was making around £100,000 a month through illegal streaming.

In February this year, Woodward pleaded guilty to 'distributing articles infringing copyright and four money laundering offences'.

Fans have been warned against using firesticks for illegal streaming. Image: Getty

Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt said: "Illegal streaming weakens the creative industries by diverting money away from legitimate businesses and into the hands of criminals like Stephen Woodward.

"Lost revenue as a result of illegal streaming means fewer jobs and less investment in future opportunities. It’s estimated that this criminal activity contributes to over 80,000 job losses each year alone.

“Stephen was brazen in running his illegal steaming websites. Despite being the subject of a criminal investigation, he had clearly not learned his lesson and yet again attempted to gain financially from his illegal activity.

"His sentencing and upcoming confiscation proceedings should send a message that there are significant consequences for criminals who enable illegal access to copyrighted content."

Over the years, fans have been warned against using 'dodgy' firesticks to stream live sports content via IPTV.

Due to the rising costs of channels like Sky Sports, TNT Sports and streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and DAZN, fans have moved towards IPTV to get their sports fix.

However, the chairman of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Kieron Sharp, has stated that fans could face prosecution as they are breaking the law by using IPTV.

Sharp said: "This has been a problem forever, since the days of pirated video cassettes and DVDs. But the rise of streaming has made things easier for the criminal in the same way as it has made things easier for the legal consumer. Is it any more of a problem than it was years ago? That’s very difficult to say. There’s no complete picture of the landscape.

"We have adopted the attitude over the years that we would rather not criminalise the end user. If we take out a gang and they have a customer database, we would normally write to the consumers on that customer list telling them ‘What you are doing is breaking the law and you will have to stop’. We would like to think that they would start paying for that content."