The ‘prime mover’ of a multi-million-pound fraud operation selling illegal streams of Premier League matches has been pictured sat in his pyjamas while investigators raided his home.
Mark Gould, 36, can be seen sat in his pyjama bottoms surrounded by crisp packets, shisha pipes and cardboard boxes as investigators searched his South London flat in May 2018.
Bodycam footage also shows around 30 linked set-top boxes used for the illegal operation piled up in Gould’s home.
It comes as five men including Gould have been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison after the Premier League brought about a historic private prosecution to clamp down on privacy and illegal streaming.
Those involved, aged between 30 and 46, operated one of the UK’s largest illicit streaming services and made millions of pounds selling TV sticks to over 50,000 customers and resellers, which allowed them to access streams illegally to watch most, if not all, of the most valuable sporting events in the world.
Mark Gould (pictured), 36, can be seen sat in his pyjama bottoms surrounded by crisp packets, shisha pipes and cardboard boxes in May 2018 as investigators search his South London home
Bodycam footage also shows around 30 linked set-top boxes used for the illegal operation piled up in Gould’s home
Trading-standards investigator Doug Love led a raid on Gould’s smart riverside flat in Greenwich, south London, in 2018.
He told BBC news: ‘I don’t think any of us realised how big it was. When we went into the spare bedroom, there were 20 or 30 set-top boxes linked together.’
The gang took feeds from broadcasters in the UK, Qatar, the US, Australia and Canada and streamed them a few seconds later via the Flawless service.
In what is the world’s largest-ever prosecution of an illegal streaming network, the five men were sentenced at Chesterfield Justice Centre on Tuesday, after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and contempt of court.
Between them, Mark Gould, 36, Steven Gordon, 46, Peter Jolley, 41, Christopher Felvus, 36, William Brown, 33, and Zak Smith, 30, generated in excess of £7million between 2016 and 2021 through three pirate streaming organisations which offered illegal access to content including live Premier League matches.
Gould, who was described Judge Martin Hurst as the ‘prime mover’ of the operation, was sentenced to 11 years in prison while Gordon, Jolley, Felvus and Brown all received sentences ranging from three to six years.
The gang took feeds from broadcasters in the UK, Qatar, the US, Australia and Canada and streamed them a few seconds later via the Flawless service
Between them, Mark Gould, 36, Steven Gordon, 46, Peter Jolley, 41, Christopher Felvus, 36, William Brown, 33, and Zak Smith, 30, generated in excess of £7million
Smith, who acted as a mole selling information obtained from his employment at an online monitoring and enforcement agency, is still at large and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Passing sentence, Judge Hurst outlined how the group charged £10 per month for the service.
A similar subscription with Sky Sports and BT Sports – the current Premier League rights holders in the UK – would cost in the range of £60-£80 per month.
In handing down the sentences, the Judge described a sophisticated offence involving significant planning and expertise, which involved the hacking of legitimate customers in the UK and abroad.
The gang’s company Flawless 1, which operated between 2016 and 2018, was at the time the largest illegal IPTV service in the UK, providing over 300 channels with 24/7 customer service for £10 per month.
It was estimated to have had 50,000 customers including a network of reseller businesses (who provided the services for £6 per month) and made £4.6million in just under two years, of which Gould took in excess of £1.7million.
The Flawless on-screen menu, showing matches available on the illegal streaming service
Not all games are televised in the UK and some fans seek alternative illegal sources
In 2018, a breakaway service known as ‘Optimal’ was launched by Gordon and Jolley after a pay dispute between Gordon and Gould however it ultimately failed due to Gould and Brown sabotaging the service by infecting its servers with malware.
Flawless 2 also known as ‘Shared VPS’, was subsequently launched by Gould, Felvus and Brown after the initial arrest of Gould and made £2.6million between May 2018 and July 2021.
Significant steps were taken by the trio to conceal the service, with Brown employed to perform a range of roles including helping Flawless avoid detection by the authorities, hacking broadcasters and their legitimate subscribers, alongside stealing content from rival illegal services.
Shared VPS was uncovered after Birmingham Trading Standards arrested one of the major Flawless resellers, following a Premier League & FACT investigation.
Evidence was identified of payments being made to a PayPal account in the name of Shared-VPS, before they moved to bitcoin.
The group charged customers £10 per month for the service while a similar subscription with Sky Sports and BT Sports in the UK would cost in the range of £60-80 a month
That account was linked to Gould as investigations, amongst other things, showed the account being used to order take-away food and electrical goods to Gould’s home address.
The investigation and prosecution was taken by the Premier League and supported by the intellectual property protection organisation FACT and Hammersmith and Fulham Trading Standards, who led a series of enforcement raids and arrests at eight addresses across the country in 2018.
Evidence seized from Felvus’ computers also established that he was in possession of indecent child imagery, which led to a separate prosecution.
In January 2021, he pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of an indecent photograph of a child and to committing 13 acts of voyeurism for which he received a custodial sentence and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Kevin Plumb, Premier League General Counsel said: ‘Today’s sentencing is the result of a long and complex prosecution of a highly sophisticated operation.
‘The sentences handed down, which are the longest sentences ever issued for piracy-related crimes, vindicate the efforts made to bring these individuals to justice and reflect the severity and extent of the crimes.’
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