Game over for £1m conman

This is the moment the law caught up with a £1 million conman from the Black Country who lived a lavish lifestyle by selling rip-off DVDs and software at computer fairs and over the internet.

Steve Adams splashed out on an apartment in Spain, a Range Rover and weight-loss surgery while masterminding a major film and software piracy racket, it can be revealed today.

His operation was smashed by trading standards and police who are pictured arresting him at Wolverhampton Racecourse where he had set up a stall at a computer fair under the business name Midland Console Modifications.

The 38-year-old lived a life of luxury while overseeing a racket which copied more than 30,000 discs containing the latest games, blockbuster films and computer software, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

He splashed out on a £14,600 Rolex watch and a personalised numberplate spelling out ENGLAND costing £6,500 while selling the counterfeits over the internet and at computer fairs across the country.

Adams, from Dudley, and his accomplice girlfriend Julie Frendo, of Wolverhampton, even proudly unveiled new looks last year after spending £4,000 on breast enlargement surgery for her – taking her from a 34C to a 32FF – and £6,000 on a gastric band operation for him to which saw him shrink from 22st to under 13st.

Today , Adams was jailed for three years, while Frendo was given a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months in a case described as the biggest of its kind dealt with by trading standards officers in Wolverhampton.

Adams, of Loweswater Drive, Lower Gornal, and 33-year-old Frendo, of Crawford Avenue, Lanesfield, admitted charges relating to the illegal copying along with 31-year-old Gregg Gartside, of Chorley, Lancashire, who helped out at computer fairs.

Mr Barry Berlin, prosecuting, told the court yesterday Adams ran a "substantial counterfeiting operation all over the country, literally from Wolverhampton through to Carlisle."

"It was persistent and it was serious," he said. "The cost to the industry is in the region of £924,000. We submit that the profit to him is around £200,000, but that's a conservative estimate." An examination of Adams' bank records showed some £627,000 was moved around accounts.

Mr Berlin said the council had "never come across anything of this scale". Peter Calvert, Wolverhampton Trading Standards manager said the cost to the entertainment industry was about £1 million.