Three years for CD fraud man

Two men convicted of being part of a multi-million pound conspiracy to defraud major music companies have been jailed.

Michael Clent, from Tenbury Wells, and Stephen Payne were involved in a plot to sell millions of CDs and DVDs which should have been destroyed.

Sentencing the two men yesterday, Judge Jonathan Gosling said the scale of the deceit and level of profiteering had been massive.

Clent, 52, was jailed for three years for his role in the five-year conspiracy run from Newport Plastics Recycling Ltd in Newport, near Telford.

Payne, 55, of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, was jailed for a total of four years and three months for conspiracy and fraudulent trading.

Both men, who were convicted after a nine-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, were also disqualified from being directors of any company for 10 years.

Judge Gosling said Payne was a 'clear leader' in the plot and Clent had been 'an important salesman' in the operation.

Confiscation applications were made by the prosecution against both Payne and Clent under the Proceeds of Crime Act which will be heard later in the year.

Judge Gosling said the potential sale of thousands of discs found by police in barns at Boughton Farm and Common Farm in Shropshire would have taken the fraudsters' profits to more than £10 million.

Discs sent to be destroyed by music companies which had instead been sold between 2001 and 2006, had already enriched the defendants by over £8 million

Members of the West Mercia Economic Crime Unit at Telford, who launched Operation Vine in 2006 - Detective Constables Andrew Clarke and Nick Hall and Detective Sergeant Ian Rutherford and civilian staff Kevin Jones and Andy McVicar – were commended.

Cary Evans, 49, of Minsterley, and Shaun Norton, 38, of Newport, were acquitted of conspiracy by the jury.

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