Premier League stops using Media Protection Services to prosecute licensees

The PMA understands that, following a recent High Court ruling, the Premier League is to use MPS in only an “investigative role”, not in a “prosecuting role”, for pending and future cases.

It is thought hundreds of cases brought by the Premier League using MPS against hosts could be void after the landmark ruling.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton ruled on 16 August in an appeal case that MPS had unlawfully acted as solicitors in a prosecution taken against Andrew and Christine Crawford, of the Railway Inn in Helsby, Cheshire, which was using an Albanian satellite system to show live football.

The Premier League said it does not believe that the case has any “automatic” implications on past prosecutions.

A spokesperson said: “This judgment is in regard to a legal technicality and does not change the fact that we have copyright-protected works in our broadcasts.

“The Crawford judgment expressly states that it applies only to this case and therefore has no automatic impact on other prosecutions.”

However, legal experts believe that past prosecutions are at risk. Paul Dixon, of Molesworths Bright Clegg, who represented the Crawfords, said: “Nowhere in the Crawford judgment does it state that it applies only to that case.

“Any suggestion that a High Court judgment does not have implications for other similar cases is quite simply wrong. In the course of the appeal hearing Lord Justice Stanley Burnton commented that the outcome of Mr and Mrs Crawford’s case could have far-reaching implications.”

Legal expert Peter Coulson agreed that this ruling does not affect the copyright issue but added: “What it may mean for those publicans who have already been convicted as a result of MPS action is that they can apply to have their convictions overturned on this technicality.”

Andy Grimsey, at Poppleston Allen, said: “If this fatal procedural irregularity has been repeated in all prosecutions brought by MPS since 2005, it could in theory endanger those prosecutions and render them void.”

Licensees' views​

After repeated attempts to call licensees who have been convicted of using a foreign satellite system by Media Protection Services, the Publican’s Morning Advertiser discovered that many of the pubs have closed down.

However, one host — Glen Peach, of the White Horse in South Shields, Tyne and Wear — was wary about trying to get his 2009 conviction overturned due to the costs involved.

Peach withdrew his crown court appeal against a foreign satellite conviction when he was fined £400 and ordered to pay £500 costs.

The appeal court ordered that, having withdrawn his appeal at the last moment, he should pay a further £235 costs to the prosecution.

He said: “I don’t want to pay out fortunes again, so would only try to get my conviction overturned if there was a no win, no fee offer.

“I think other licensees would do it, but some people lost their business because of the costs.”