Londoner jailed for selling £2.7million of fake vinyl on “industrial scale”

A man has been jailed for selling £2.7million worth of fake vinyl by the likes of The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. READ MORE: CD revenue up by nearly 60 per cent in first half of 2026 Rehan Ahmed from west London, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court last Friday (September 18) in what City of London Police called “a long‑running, highly organised and entirely unlicensed manufacturing operation”. He pleaded guilty to two charges of breach of artists’ copyright, and acquiring and using criminal property. On the first count, Judge Darren Reed sentenced him to two years and eight months in prison, while the more serious second charge led to a custodial penalty of three and a half years. The sentences will be served concurrently, meaning that the second will dictate the time Ahmed spends in prison, according to The Guardian. Ahmed produced counterfeit vinyl albums under the company names Phoenix of Vinyl and Paragon Music, which he supplied to record shops or sold directly to consumers through online platforms such as Discogs and eBay. His record factory was raided in February 2024 after the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) made a test purchase from the premises and dis...