The Bellville Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced Jordon Lee Mot, to seven years imprisonment and suspended for five years after he being arrested for theft of Multichoice content which he illegally sold.
The sentence and fine follows after his conviction on seven counts of the prohibition on the manufacture, possession, and advertising of listed equipment.
Mot was forced to pay a lump sum into the bank account of the Criminal Asset Recovery Account (Cara), after he was arrested for theft of MultiChoice content which he illegally sold
Lee Mot, a sole director of JP Limitless Sa (Pty) Ltd, illegally advertised, possessed purchased and sold listed Android TV boxes and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) which is the property of Multichoice.
MultiChoice, who is the complainant, provides pay-television broadcasting services to subscribers, against payment of a prescribed fee for the authorised content.
On 30 July 2019, prosecutor, Advocate Aurelia Harmse informed the court that, Jan Andreas, a senior piracy investigator employed by IRDETO, who is responsible for security and investigation of all piracy-related issues concerning MultiChoice, discovered while conducting online searches that there is a company that is selling Android TV boxes, IPTV subscriptions with over 3 000 channels and over 300 videos on demand.
“He immediately contacted the accused and was informed that there is a promotion on an Android TV box, including one month’s IPTV subscription for R60 00. Two years later, on 14 August 2022, he placed an order and was provided with bank details.”
“A day later after depositing the required amount, he visited the address of the accused in Bellville and was welcomed by a lady who showed him the different applications on the Android TV box,” Harmse said.
Harmse says that Jan Andreas also observed a box full of Android TV boxes in the house and he took the box home to establish whether it was working. On 20 August 2019, he found that updated South African channels were playing, and all SuperSport on the DStv platform were active and working on the IPTV subscription service.
During court proceedings, Harmse told the court that IPTV was at no stage issued with such a DStv subscription, the accused did not acquire any rights to access or distribute programs on the DStv Platform and a trap was set up and the accused was phoned to provide another Android TV box.
“On 2 October 2022, he met with the client who paid him R780 for an Android MI TV Stick that was preloaded and required no password or link to connect. He was arrested and police found more Android TV boxes on his premises,” Harmse added.
In his plea and sentencing agreement, the accused, Mot, confessed that he did not acquire any right, or authority to promote, distribute, possess, offer to sell, or sell or enable access to the protected content from MultiChoice.
After successfully applying for a confiscation order, the accused agreed and paid R60 000 into the Cara account.
IOL