A FATHER from Melksham who ran a DVD counterfeiting factory from his spare room has been jailed for nine months.

Robert Bence, 40, of Queensway, Melksham, copied and sold movies, compact discs and computer games as well as illegal hard core pornography and fake clothing.

He even continued his illicit business after trading standards officers warned him what he was doing was wrong when they spotted him operating at a car boot sale.

Yvonne Bennett, Wiltshire County Council's area trading standards manager welcomed the sentence, set at Swindon Crown Court on Thursday.

She said: "This is a pleasing result and a good deterrent, as this type of offence is regarded as serious. It gives a clear warning to people who might be thinking about embarking on this kind of activity, that there are serious consequences."

Gary Lucie, prosecuting, told the court how police launched a dawn raid at Bence's home on October 19, 2004.

Officers called in trading standards who found boxes of fake DVDs, CDs and X-box games as well as branded clothing like Nike, Von Dutch and Gap, in the house.

In one of the rooms they found a personal computer and a DVD re-writing tower for producing the bootleg discs. "It was clear to the officers that the room was being used as a factory to copy DVDs and CDs," he said. Bence's Peugeot car was searched and further discs were found along with hard-core porn films, which had not been given a certificate in this county.

Although he initially claimed to have started up in the business after losing his job and only made about £40 a day, almost £10,000 in cash was seized.

Investigators found a letter from a previous employer which gave one of the reasons for dismissal being using the company van to distribute and sell illegal pornographic DVDs and videos'.

He said he had not used originals of the films and games but made copies of copies which he then sold on packaged in artwork he had printed.

Bence said he used to tour building sites in the Trowbridge and Westbury area selling the items and bought the clothes from a stall at Bristol Fruit Market.

He admitted 17 trading standards offences, two video recording offences and asked for a further 49 matters to be taken into consideration.

Sam Butterfield, defending, said his client lived with his fiance and seven-year-old son and needed to earn money to pay the mortgage after losing his job.

Bence made copies of DVDs and CDs to order, he said, rather than make them in bulk and go out and try to sell them.

He said since his arrest his client had got another job and realised what he had done was wrong and was full of remorse.

Judge Tom Longbotham said: "I am afraid in my judgement these offences are so serious that the only sentence must be a prison sentence.

"Manufactures suffer, retailers suffer, those purchasing what they believe to be the genuine article suffer. One should not ignore the damage done to legitimate trade."

He also ordered the confiscation of £9,550 in cash seized by police and ordered £2,500 of it to go towards court costs.