Middlesbrough shop owner to be sentenced for Kodi boxes

A trader will be sentenced today after admitting two charges relating to selling TV boxes which allow free access to premium content such as sports channels and movies.

Shop owner Brian Thompson, 55, had originally denied the offences, setting up the prospect of a landmark court case relating to the sale of Kodi boxes.

But last month he pleaded guilty and Judge Peter Armstrong told the businessman, who runs Cut Price Tomo's TV store in Middlesbrough, that all sentencing options were open.

Thompson, of Barnaby Avenue, Middlesbrough, will be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court for one count of selling and one count of advertising devices designed, produced or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures''.

After the hearing Thompson said he had never denied selling the boxes, but explained that customers had to adapt the devices themselves to gain access to premium content for free.

He has previously told reporters: All I want to know is whether I am doing anything illegal. I know it's a grey area but I want it in black and white.

I'm prepared to accept what the court decides but at the moment as far as I'm concerned I'm not breaking the law.''

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