Man Jailed for UK's Largest Vinyl Counterfeiting Operation

Rehan Ahmed, a 40-year-old man from Southall, west London, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for running the United Kingdom's largest vinyl counterfeiting operation. The sentence was handed down at Inner London Crown Court on September 18, 2026, following a guilty plea to two counts of breach of copyright and acquiring and using criminal property. The operation, which ran from 2017 to 2024 under the names Phoenix of Vinyl and Paragon Music, generated estimated sales between £2.7 million and £3.6 million. Police and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) described it as a long-running, highly organized, and entirely unlicensed manufacturing enterprise. The case came to light after the BPI made a test purchase from Ahmed's warehouse in Acton, west London, in February 2024. This led to a raid by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) of the City of London Police, which uncovered what authorities called the largest seizure of counterfeit vinyl in UK history. Officers found 2,791 finished records spanning 108 artists, including Taylor Swift, The Beatles, Ed Sheeran, Drake, Rihanna, Bad Bunny, Adele, and Beyoncé.