A Sydney man has been convicted over the theft and illegal on-sale of Pay TV.

Narender Narwal was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, fully suspended, on entering a good behaviour bond of five years and fined $15,000 for making and selling unauthorised decoders.

Narwal’s arrest and conviction resulted from an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation supported by STV industry investigators from Foxtel and other companies, with assistance from anti-piracy experts from Irdeto, a software security and media technology company, who provided on-site support and technical evidence for the AFP.

Narwal was involved in the sale of unauthorized set top boxes programmed to provide a network of people with access to stolen STV channels through an illegal system that used the internet to hack into encoded broadcasts.

“This sentencing clearly reinforces the fact that piracy is theft and it will be investigated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). I commend the police and support teams involved in dealing with this case effectively and efficiently. As an industry, STV will continue to defend its intellectual property against piracy so that it can keep investing and innovating for its legitimate subscribers and contribute to the growth of the Australian economy,” said Petra Buchanan, CEO of ASTRA.

Buchanan added: “Many consumers are unaware it is a criminal offence to have unauthorised equipment installed in their homes and should be suspicious of purchasing any equipment that provides access to STV broadcasts for which they are not directly paying an authorised provider. In most instances innocent customers are ultimately left out of pocket when they realise these devices are quickly rendered inoperable.”

ASTRA runs an anti-piracy hotline on 1800 428 888 to which suspected piracy can be reported.