The owner of the once-popular Droidsticks has been sentenced to prison for his role in the sale of illegal set-top boxes.
Halton Mark Anthony Powell started selling “pirate” TV boxes in 2013 via his website, retail store, and other sites such as eBay & Amazon.
These “fully loaded” Android boxes were sold with Kodi pre-installed along with Powell’s own Kodi Wizard, the Droidsticks Wizard.
This contained various third-party add-ons that provided access to unlawful content including live streaming channels and more for free.
These devices soon caught the attention of the UK Police Force specifically the PIPCU (Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit).
Investigators started tracking Powell’s operation in March 2015 and eventually a raid was assembled in June 2016.
Authorities descended upon Powell’s storefront as well as a storage unit and discovered over 1300 illegal media devices.
In addition, a look at his bank account revealed that Powell had generated over 2.3 million euros from the sales of over 24,000 streaming devices.
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This ultimately led to his arrest. When asked about the operation, he continually answered: “no comment” to all questions from officials.
After more than 6 years, Powell eventually pled guilty at Southwark Crown Court in August 2022 to supplying articles for use in fraud.
On November 11, 2022, Halton Powell was sentenced to two years and 6 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Detective Sergeant Petr Gartland from London’s PIPCU noted the following in a press release from the City of London Police:
Powell attempted to hide the illegitimate nature of his business by concealing evidence that he was selling products pre-configured to stream Sky Sports and Sky Cinema. However, PIPCU officers were able to prove he was aware the set-top boxes were being used for this purpose by thousands of customers.
You can read the entire press release using the link below.
Man jailed for making over £2 million from illegally pre-configured TV set-top boxes
TROYPOINT always recommends staying far away from any set-top boxes that come pre-loaded with various Apps and Addons.
Users should purchase legal devices for streaming such as the Amazon Firestick and Fire TV which are the most popular media devices available today.
What do you think of the owner of Droidsticks receiving a 30-month prison sentence?
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And I wonder how many “coppers” have one, or a dodgy “Firestick “ the criminals catching the criminals.
I wouldn’t trust any of them, license thugs.
Did he manufacture these or program these devices or did he just distribute them?
They spent all that time, money and resources for him selling a product. It’s up to the people who bought it that decided to use it to stream illegally. I think he got too much time for what he did. They should be more interested in going after real criminals such as rapist, human trafficking, murderers, etc. I hope he at least gets to keep his money or had enough sense to hide some.
That’s Engayland for ya.
Was the DroidWorld tv box the same as Droid stick?
at present less than 10% of crimes, including, RAPE, burglary, violent assault result in a prosecution…so yes, it makes perfect sense to go after the geezer selling dodgy set tops?? morons
Great argument. Facts are wrong and irrelevant. But at least you used an insult, officer.
It’s nonsense. You don’t arrest high performance manufacturers or sales people for cars because the driver was speeding or driving recklessly. Eventually they’ll try I suppose.
Well, if he gets to keep the money, or has hidden a large chunk of it somewhere. Then 30 months is acceptable. Given that he most likely will only serve 15 months or less. ;-)
Be out in a year+ and be a millionaire!
30 months isn’t that much really. I expect he’ll work out how to make a few quid on the inside!
Rediculious sentence just for selling dodgy settop boxers it’s the police pfft idiots.companys courts only bothered about own gain the system is broke don’t trust in the laws system the guy has got same sentence has assault by the book absolutely rediculious