FIVE people were jailed today after one of the North-East's biggest counterfeiting music and film rings was smashed.
The four men and woman - part of a gang of ten from County Durham and Tyneside who appeared in court - were locked up for a total of eight years and ten months.
Bosses from the British Phonographgic Industry, which brought the unusual private prosecution, praised the sentences and said they will send out a message to others tempted to make money with bootleg CDs and DVDs.
The copies of the chart hits and blockbuster films were sold at car boot sales and markets across the region, including those at Sedgefield, Seaham and Consett in County Durham.
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