Car-boot trader fails in bid to reduce jail sentence

Date published: 28 June 2007

A car-boot trader, jailed for flooding Greater Manchester with counterfeit DVDs, CDs and video games, has failed in a bid to get his jail term cut.

Sean David Blower (also known as Robinson) (43) was trailed by police around markets and car-boot sales in Rochdale and Oldham before officers descended and seized piles of counterfeit discs and specially adapted copying computers in March, 2006.

Blower was jailed for 14 months on April 20 this year, after pleading guilty at Bolton Crown Court to four counts of unauthorised use of a trademark and use of, or making copies of, a sign identical to or likely to be mistaken for a registered trademark.

Blower, of Jackson Mews, Watersheddings, Oldham asked Mr Justice Stanley Burnton, sitting with Mr Justice Wilkie at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, to cut his sentence, claiming it was too long.

The court heard that police followed Blower from a car-boot sale at Oldham Rugby Club, to a market in the town hall car park in Rochdale, then back to Oldham, where he was finally arrested and his goods seized.

Refusing to reduce the sentence, Mr Justice Burnton condemned the damage caused to those involved in the legitimate recording industry.

"He is someone who readily commits offences of dishonesty when tempted to do so by the prospect of easy gain," the judge said of Blower, dismissing his appeal.