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Police seize 6,498 counterfeit vinyl records in major Luton raid
Police seized 6,498 counterfeit vinyl records in Luton, in one of the UK’s largest fake LP crackdowns.
Police have seized 6,498 counterfeit vinyl records in a raid on an unnamed premises in Luton, in what is believed to be one of the UK’s biggest ever crackdowns on fake LP production.
The operation took place on April 22 last month, when the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, known as PIPCU, moved in alongside the British Phonographic Industry’s Content Protection Unit. The haul is thought to carry a retail value of £259,520. Police have not said whether any arrests were made.
PIPCU Detective Sergeant Jamie Kirk said the raid underlined the damage counterfeit vinyl does beyond the warehouse or workshop where it is made. “Counterfeit vinyl harms legitimate businesses and causes real losses for artists and the wider music industry,” he said. “This operation sends a clear message that the sale of counterfeit goods will not be tolerated and highlights the impact that strong partnership working can have in tackling intellectual property crime.”
Peter Ratcliffe, from the BPI’s Content Protection Unit, pointed to the current demand for records as part of the problem. “The vinyl revival means that there are sadly criminals trying to take advantage and cash in through counterfeiting,” he said. “Like all illegal markets, this doesn’t just damage our UK music industry, it potentially impacts every one of us as citizens, as these ill-gotten gains often fund other forms of criminal activity.
“We continue to take the fight back to the criminals, and the BPI’s Content Protection Unit is delighted to have worked hand in hand with City of London Police’s PIPCU to help successfully disrupt what is clearly a major illegal counterfeiting operation.”
The scale of the Luton seizure arrives after another high-profile vinyl counterfeiting case in 2023, when a fan of The Clash helped expose a man who had made £1.2 million from fake records. Richard Hutter had spent six years selling counterfeit vinyl before the poor sound quality on one of the records prompted the buyer to demand a refund, setting the whole thing in motion.
Vinyl sales have continued to climb too. In December, the BPI reported that sales of vinyl had risen for the 18th consecutive year in 2025, with all physical formats up 1.4 per cent overall.
