Blobby's business goes bust in police dawn raid

The UK's Mr Big of software piracy is out of business following a series of dawn raids throughout the Manchester area by police, trading standards officers and FAST (the Federation Against Software Theft.)

The man behind the Blobby series of pirate software compilations was the target of the software enforcement officials, but his comrade label in crime, Voodoo, and their distribution rings were also shut down.

The raids netted software and copying equipment valued at u10 million.

The majority of the seized goods were on PC-CD ROM but Playstation titles were also in the haul. Eighteen men have been arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries.

ELSPA's investigator in Manchester passed on information to the trading standards officers which led to the success of the raid. Assistant investigator Karen Battin said: "Each Blobby disk can contain up to 600 of the latest games. He was by far the biggest pirate in operation."

Blobby is estimated to have produced over 100 volumes of his pirate compilations.