Piracy raids in the UK are successful as police find two chipping lines...

After raids in the North East of England, the police are now questioning three suspects for producing mod chips and chipped consoles.

Two raids were carried out at 7:30 yesterday morning in the Billingham area, and another in Lingdale. A husband and wife in their late 30s from Billingham were questioned after their house was found to be "full to the brim" with Wii, DS, PS2, 360 and Xbox mod chips. A man in his late 20s living with his elderly grandmother from Lindgale are also under investigation from the discovery when thousands of chips, and massive amounts of blank media, at his home.

This is a radical departure to how anti-piracy laws used to be handled. These raids were carried out by Police officers from the Cleveland Police Economic Crime Unit in conjunction with Stockton Police, two Trading Standards authorities and members of ELSPA Anti-Piracy Unit.

Michael Rawlinson, Managing Director of ELSPA said: "We were delighted with the outcome of this operation, finding and bringing criminals to book. We would like to thank Cleveland Police, the Trading standards department and all those who worked so hard to achieve this result. We now call on all police and trading standards authorities to act with the same level of commitment in order to protect legitimate businesses and consumers against these exploitative criminals."

Detective Inspector Bill Matthews, Head of Cleveland Police Economic Crime Unit said: "This case is an excellent example of a multi-agency approach to tackle organised criminal activity. We have had significant successes in the recent past working with local Trading Standards departments and this is a natural extension of that relationship. This is a very modern, Hi-Tech and growing form of criminality that needs a fresh, cooperative approach to tackle it. We will use the considerable powers at our disposal under the Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure that the substantial financial gains made from this type of crime are removed from those responsible."

The police plan to further crack down on anti-piracy in the country.