Police Issue Dire Warning: "Arrests Imminent for Sky Sports Streamers Using 'Dodgy' Firesticks"

In an age where television shouldn’t even cost you a fiver but does, have you ever wondered why the urge to get something for nothing feels so…British? I swear, ITV and Sky could start charging us for the air we breathe while watching their channels and some of us might still shrug and say, “sure, why not?” Here we are, with the City of London Police diving into the murky waters of the streaming world, sliding stern letters through doors like an old-fashioned RSVP with an edge.

The dodgey firestick sellers, well, let’s just say they’re getting the surprise of their lives, or rather, letters stuffed into their letterboxes, warning of consequences that are less than appetizing for someone in the dodgy dealings business. Illegal streaming of Sky Sports and other premium content has apparently “gone through the roof”—shattering, isn’t it?

Chief Inspector Emma Warbey from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit has her eyes set on those “at the top of the tree.” She’s keen to remind us there’s no such thing as a free lunch—and certainly not a free Premiership match. But here’s a chuckle, consider this: in a bid to deter the masses from their piratical pursuits, the Bobbies are using “cease and desist” letters like party invitations nobody wants to accept. Pretty effective, she says.

But there’s the rub, my friends, the vast majority of Brits are obliviously engrossed in their jail-broken streaming sticks, feeding their silver into the black market. And herein lies the rub: Your money’s going places you probably don’t want to visit, supporting a host of crimes you’d never dream of endorsing.

Onto the “other tactics” the police are upping the ante for. How fascinating that instead of checking who’s got their hand in the TV cookie jar, they’re now focusing on the suppliers, the adults dealing the candy to the kids, so to speak.

With the cost-of-living crisis squeezing us like a London tube during rush hour, it’s “really hard” to get folks to drop their questionable streaming habits. Though, there’s also a room full of people who might not twig they are unwittingly sharing their personal details with the less-than-friendly folks.

So, next time you’re pondering an “economical” way to watch the next big match, give a thought to this—are you in for a freebie or funding for cimmunity you’d never

Police are shoving stern warning letters through the doors of ‘dodgy’ firestick sellers as the nationwide crackdown on bootleg streaming continues.

Cops said the amount of people in the UK who are illegally streaming Sky Sports and other premium content has gone ‘through the roof’ in recent months.

Officials have been tightening up on the use of IPTV and illegally modified Fire TV sticks since last year, but are now ‘looking at other tactics’ to stamp the trend out once and for all.

The head of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit at the City of London Police, Emma Warbey, explained that authorities are ready to arrest those who continue to flout the law despite repeated warnings.

(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

She explained that most Brits have been able to use their dodgy firesticks without fear of being led away in handcuffs because officers are going after ‘resellers and the people at the top of the tree’ in organised crime groups.

“We always follow the money and go for the bigger organised crime groups and the bigger organised crime networks,” the detective chief inspector told the Financial Times.

Warbey explained that although a lot of people who tune into their shows via jail-broken firesticks think it’s a victimless crime, they aren’t exactly right.

“Those criminals are using that money, your hard-earned money, for lots of different things, usually drugs, certainly forced labour, people trafficking, huge amounts of other criminality that you’re feeding into,” Warbey said.

“So it isn’t a victimless crime.”

The police have been using ‘cease and desist’ letters to spook lower-level sellers who are flogging the illegal TV services, she said.

‘Cease and desist’ letters are being sent out by cops, Warbey said (Getty Stock Photo)

And apparently, these notices warning that they will be slung into the cells seems to have been ‘very effective’ so far.

Warbey continued: “We are basically saying, ‘We know what you’re doing, this is the law that you’re breaking, and if you carry on, we will come and arrest you’.

“If you were a 22-year-old doing it from your bedroom and the police turned up, that’s a huge impact. We can’t arrest everybody in the UK that’s doing it. So we’re trying to look at other tactics.”

The top cop said that because the use of dodgy firesticks is ‘so prevalent in the UK’, especially amid the cost-of-living crisis, it’s ‘really hard’ to stop people from using them.

However, she reckons that a host of users don’t actually realise that they are handing over their personal details to organised crime groups and fraudsters when signing up for a shady firestick.