A 37-YEAR-OLD man from near Thirsk has been given an 18 month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of fraud.

Nigel Bennetto, of Carlton Husthwaite, who was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court yesterday, was also ordered to repay £464,838 or face a default prison term of up to three years in addition to his existing sentence.

North Yorkshire Police said he was initially arrested in January 2013 by the force's Financial Investigation Unit on suspicion of money laundering and offences.

"During a search of his home address, several thousand DVDs, all suspected of being counterfeit, were recovered," said a spokeswoman.

"An investigator from FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) was present during the search and tested several of the DVDs, establishing that they were counterfeit goods.

"It was found that Mr Bennetto had created seller accounts on Amazon using false company details in order to hide his identity from Amazon. In order to avoid giving his own telephone number, which would give away his identity, Mr Bennetto admitted to hiring telephone lines from another company.

"This company rent out phone lines which can be transferred to a location of the customers choosing, therefore giving the outward appearance that a different number is being called. "

She said Bennetto set up and operated six Amazon seller accounts which were used to sell counterfeit DVDs imported from China.

"At a previous court appearance, he pleaded guilty to Fraud by Failing to Disclose, contrary to Section 3 of the Fraud Act 2006."

Acting Detective Inspector Jonathan Rowland, of the North Yorkshire Police Financial Investigation Unit, said: “The financial investigator in this case deserves a great deal of credit, both in proving fraud had occurred and identifying just how much money had been made by Bennetto. I would also like to thank FACT for the all the assistance they provided to this enquiry."