30,000 Discs Found After Roadside Pull

Durham police found 30,000 CDs after stopping a car that was believed to have been driven without insurance.

After officers questioned and arrested the two men at the roadside, the police then raided their two houses in Burnhope and Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

U.K. record label association BPI and U.K. film anti-piracy organisation FACT have confirmed that two males were arrested October 29 on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the music and film industries.

The two individuals had already been under suspicion after investigations by BPI and FACT into the supply and distribution of counterfeit music and film in the region.

Police said officers from the force’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) unit were on duty in the Pelaw Bank area of Chester-le-Street when at about 10 a.m. they stopped a Daewoo Lalos car being driven by the two suspects.

The subsequent raids uncovered an estimated 30,000 discs containing music, films, TV series and computer games.

Several Xbox video game systems were also recovered along with recording equipment, toner cartridges and about £500 in cash.

The car has also been seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act and the two men, one in his 30s and the other in his 40s, were arrested for copyright offenses.