Forger made £2.7m from largest fake vinyl haul ever found by police in the UK

A vinyl forger made £2.7 million by selling thousands of fake records of artists including the Beatles, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift - made in an industrial site in London.

Police uncovered the largest haul of fake vinyl ever found by officers in the UK, with 2,791 records by 108 different artists discovered at the counterfeiting factory.

Four 70-year-old vinyl presses were used to copy work by acts including Adele, Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, Drake, Beyonce and Rihanna.

At the industrial unit in Acton, west London, police also found 3,000 metal stampers and thousands of sleeves and centre labels, seizing a total of 18 tonnes of evidence.

City of London Police described the raid in February 2024 as the "largest seizure of its kind in the UK".

Rehan Ahmed, 40, was arrested and jailed for three-and-a-half years at Inner London Crown Court on Friday for the "long‑running, highly organised and entirely unlicensed manufacturing operation".

He profited from what City of London Police described as a "fully operational underground vinyl‑manufacturing plant operating on an industrial scale" under the company name Phoenix of Vinyl.

Ahmed, from Southall, west London, generated £2,743,000 through the sale of counterfeit vinyl records between 2017 and 2024.

Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt, from the police intellectual property crime unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police, said: "Rehan Ahmed exploited artists and the wider music industry, taking advantage of the resurgence in vinyl records for his own gain.

"We will continue to pursue criminals who target the creative industries and bring them to justice when they do.

"This case should send a clear message to anyone selling counterfeit vinyl, it is illegal and we will take action."

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Peter Ratcliffe, BPI director of content protection, said: "This conviction is hugely significant and we thank our partners in this investigation, PIPCU and our label members for their valued efforts over many months to bring about this welcome outcome.

"Sadly, it won't return the tens of millions of pounds that we estimate have been leeched from artists, the record labels that support them and the retail community that sells their music, but at least this major criminal operation has now been closed down and it sends a clear signal to other counterfeiters who are exploiting music that we are coming after them."

He added: "With music on physical formats enjoying a resurgence, the market in counterfeit records has unfortunately also been growing as criminals cash in at the expense of creators and fans.

"This doesn't just impact the legal music economy and everyone that works and invests in it - it also affects every one of us as citizens who fall victim to other forms of criminality that it funds.

"It is vital that we put a stop to it and working with our members, PIPCU, trading standards and other authorities we are absolutely focused on doing just that."

(c) Sky News 2026: Forger made £2.7m from largest fake vinyl haul ever found by police in the UK