Hotel, bar and restaurant hit with £24,000 fine for illegal Sky Sports screenings

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Prosecution brought by anti-piracy monitor FACT

A popular lakeside hotel, restaurant and bar has been fined more than £24,000 for illegally showing Sky Sports football matches to customers.

The licensee of The Casa, on Elland Road, pleaded guilty to six offences of dishonest reception of a television transmission at Kirklees Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The prosecution was brought by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), which monitors pubs and other sites to ensure they have valid commercial viewing agreements in place.

Casa Events Ltd, premises licensee of The Casa, was fined £2,500 on each offence. It was also ordered to pay a £200 victim surcharge plus costs of £9,131.21.

Sky Sports is only available to licensed premises in the UK via a commercial viewing agreement from Sky Business.

George Lawson, head of commercial piracy at Sky, said the Casa prosecution was part of on-going protection of legitimate Sky customers who are “unfairly losing business due to this illegal activity”.

He added: Those licensees who choose to televise content illegally should be aware that they are at high risk of being caught and face substantial penalties and a criminal conviction.

“The only legal way to show Sky Sports programming in licensed premises in the UK is via a commercial viewing agreement from Sky.”

Casa was at the centre of a planning dispute with Calderdale Council for more than six years over a two-storey extension which finally got planning permission last year.