A man who sold GBP £2.7 million (USD $3.6 million) worth of counterfeit vinyl records in the UK has been jailed for three and a half years.
Rehan Ahmed, 40, of Southall, west London, generated £2,743,000 through the sale of counterfeit records between 2017 and 2024, according to City of London Police.
He was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Friday (September 18), in a case referred to police by UK recorded music trade body the BPI.
The records were produced and distributed from a unit in Acton, west London, under the name Phoenix of Vinyl, police said in an announcement on Monday (September 21).
Warrants executed in February 2024 led to the seizure of 2,791 vinyl records, along with stampers and lacquer used in their manufacture.
Officers also found four vinyl presses, each around 70 years old, 3,000 metal stampers, and thousands of sleeves and center labels.
In total, 18 metric tons of evidence were recovered.
Labels later reviewed the seized stock and confirmed that every title infringed their copyright, with the copyrights of 108 artists used across the haul.
City of London Police said the evidence pointed to “a long-running, highly organised and entirely unlicensed manufacturing operation,” and said it believes the plant had been operating since 2017.
The force said the case produced the largest seizure of its kind in the UK.
Police put the number of finished records recovered at 2,791. The Guardian, which reported on the case on September 19, said officers found around 15,000 records in all at the premises.
“Rehan Ahmed exploited artists and the wider music industry, taking advantage of the resurgence in vinyl records for his own gain,” said Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police. “We will continue to pursue criminals who target the creative industries and bring them to justice when they do.
“This case should send a clear message to anyone selling counterfeit vinyl, it is illegal and we will take action.”
“This case should send a clear message to anyone selling counterfeit vinyl, it is illegal and we will take action.”
Daryl Fryatt, City of London Police
Peter Ratcliffe, BPI Director of Content Protection, said: “This conviction is hugely significant, and we thank our partners in this investigation, PIPCU and our label members, for their valued efforts over many months to bring about this welcome outcome. Sadly, it won’t return the tens of millions of pounds that we estimate have been leeched from artists, the record labels that support them, and the retail community that sells their music, but at least this major criminal operation has now been closed down and it sends a clear signal to other counterfeiters who are exploiting music that we are coming after them.
“With music on physical formats enjoying a resurgence, the market in counterfeit records has unfortunately also been growing as criminals cash in at the expense of creators and fans. This doesn’t just impact the legal music economy and everyone that works and invests in it – it also affects every one of us as citizens who fall victim to other forms of criminality that it funds. It is vital that we put a stop to it and working with our members, PIPCU, trading standards and other authorities we are absolutely focused on doing just that.”
“With music on physical formats enjoying a resurgence, the market in counterfeit records has unfortunately also been growing as criminals cash in at the expense of creators and fans.”
Peter Ratcliffe, BPI
The sentencing follows a separate PIPCU operation in April, when officers seized 6,498 counterfeit records in a raid in Luton, Bedfordshire.
Those records carried an estimated retail loss of GBP £259,920 ($351,372), according to investigators.
Both cases come as vinyl sales in the UK continue to climb.
Vinyl sales in the UK grew 13.3% YoY to 7.6 million units in 2025, an 18th consecutive year of growth, according to BPI data published in January.
Vinyl revenues rose 19.9% YoY to GBP £174.7 million ($234 million) last year, which the BPI said in March was the format’s highest annual total in more than three decades.
Ahmed, who also traded under the name Paragon Music, pleaded guilty to two charges – breach of artists’ copyright, and acquiring and using criminal property – according to The Guardian.
Judge Darren Reed handed down two years and eight months on the first count and three and a half years on the second, to be served concurrently, the newspaper reported.
Ahmed sold counterfeit copies of records by artists including Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar, according to the same report, which put the street value of the albums found at the site at around GBP £1 million ($1.3 million).
The BPI has been involved in 43 search warrants targeting counterfeit vinyl and CDs over the past two years, seizing around 600,000 items with an estimated street value of up to GBP £8 million ($10.7 million), The Guardian reported.
Ratcliffe told the newspaper that at least 10 further counterfeit vinyl investigations are underway.Music Business Worldwide
