Vinyl counterfeiter jailed after £2.7m operation targeting 108 artists

A West London man has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after operating an industrial-scale counterfeit vinyl business that generated approximately £2.743 million from sales between 2017 and 2024.

Rehan Ahmed, 40, of Southall, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on September 18, 2026, after being found guilty in connection with the manufacture and sale of counterfeit vinyl records. The operation, which operated under the name Phoenix of Vinyl, involved the copyrighted works of 108 artists and was described by the City of London Police as the UK’s largest seizure of counterfeit vinyl records.

Industrial-scale counterfeit operation

Police executed warrants at an industrial unit in Acton in February 2024, seizing 2,791 counterfeit vinyl records involving 108 artists. Record labels subsequently examined the seized material and confirmed that the titles infringed their copyrights. The artists whose works were reproduced included The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, Drake, Beyoncé, and Rihanna.

The operation involved substantially more than the distribution of unauthorized recordings. Officers discovered four vinyl presses, each approximately 70 years old, around 3,000 metal stampers, and thousands of sleeves and center labels. The seized evidence weighed approximately 18 tonnes. Police said the facility was capable of producing counterfeit recordings on an industrial scale and had been operating covertly since 2017.

Investigation began with industry intelligence

The investigation was referred to the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) after representatives of the industry body made a test purchase from the Phoenix of Vinyl operation.

The resulting investigation uncovered what police described as a “fully operational underground vinyl-manufacturing plant operating on an industrial scale.”

The case demonstrates the role that cooperation between rights holders, industry organizations and specialist law enforcement agencies can play in identifying physical counterfeit operations. Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt of PIPCU said Ahmed had exploited artists and the wider music industry by taking advantage of the resurgence in vinyl records.

A growing counterfeit market

The prosecution comes as vinyl has experienced a sustained revival, creating renewed commercial demand for physical music products. The BPI has warned that the growth of the legitimate physical music market has also been accompanied by an increase in counterfeit activity. Peter Ratcliffe, BPI Director of Content Protection, said the organization had worked with PIPCU and its label members to bring the operation to an end.

The BPI said that, over the previous two years, it had supported 43 search warrants targeting counterfeit vinyl and CDs, resulting in approximately 600,000 items being seized with an estimated street value of up to £8 million. It also said at least 10 further counterfeit-vinyl investigations were ongoing.

Enforcement challenge for IP owners

Although Ahmed’s prosecution centered on copyright infringement rather than a reported trademark offense, the case provides a significant example of the wider challenges presented by physical counterfeiting.

The operation combined unauthorized reproduction of protected creative works with the manufacture and distribution of physical goods at commercial scale. The investigation also required cooperation between law enforcement and rights holders, with record labels examining the seized material to establish the infringements involving 108 artists. For IP owners, the case illustrates the importance of market monitoring, test purchases, evidence gathering, and cooperation with specialist enforcement authorities when counterfeit goods are identified.

It also demonstrates how changes in consumer demand can create new opportunities for counterfeiters. The renewed popularity of vinyl has created a valuable market for legitimate artists, labels, and retailers — and, according to the BPI, an accompanying market for unauthorized products.

Three-and-a-half-year sentence

Ahmed was sentenced to three years and six months in prison on September 18. The court result records the offense as dealing with or making infringing articles. City of London Police said the prosecution had disrupted a criminal enterprise responsible for distributing thousands of counterfeit vinyl records across the UK.

For the wider IP enforcement community, the case highlights the continuing importance of physical-counterfeit investigations even as much infringement has moved online — and shows how established creative markets can become targets for increasingly sophisticated manufacturing operations.

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