A UK court has sentenced a man to three and a half years in prison for running an illegal enterprise that manufactured and sold counterfeit vinyl records of world-renowned artists, generating millions of pounds in profits.
The 40-year-old defendant, Rehan Ahmed, was accused of producing and distributing bootleg music records for over 108 major artists, including The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Ariana Grande, Drake, Beyoncé, and Rihanna. British authorities revealed that the accused operated this unlawful business for approximately seven years, accumulating over 2.7 million pounds in profit.
The scheme unraveled when music industry representatives covertly purchased records from his warehouse, and subsequent analysis confirmed they were counterfeit. Following the tip-off, British police raided a warehouse in Acton, West London, seizing 2,791 fake vinyl records—marking what police described as the largest-ever domestic seizure of counterfeit vinyl records in the country.
