Manchester Crown Court last week sentenced an accused of selling pirated IPTV to four years and six months in prison.Michael Hornung was found guilty of earning around £350,000 (€407,128) between 2014 and 2017 using pirated IPTV decoders.However, his sentence is of little use, as he fled from the UK, but was tried in his absence and found guilty on all counts.Jurors were told at the start of the hearing that Mr Hornung was neither present nor represented and that "that was his choice".FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft), assisted by Manchester Police, investigated the activities of an online provider of pirated IPTV set-top boxes that allowed access to subscription television content without pay the chains.The investigation began in April 2014 and FACT identified the supplier as Michael Hornung, who was based in Cheshire and traded under the name 'NoHatsNoTrainers' through the CS World online platform.This anti-piracy organization made a test purchase of the device that the accused was selling, verifying that it gave access to hundreds of channels of Virgin's cable subscription service, including Sky Sports and Sky Movies, without making any payment.The username 'nohatsnotrainers' advertised the devices on a website called 'CS-world', also known as 'card sharing', which is the colloquial term for sharing control words, the prosecutor said.Between 2014 and 2017, the 'Nohatsnotrainers' account posted 1,000 messages online about the boxes it was selling.In February 2017, Michael Hornung was arrested and several computers, servers, memory cards, a mobile phone, set-top boxes and control word sharing cards were seized from his address, the prosecutor said.The various devices were examined and chat threads were found between 'Nohatsnotrainers' and their clients, demonstrating the devices being sold and the configuration of said equipment.Hornung denied the allegations and fled the UK for Cyprus, which does not extradite suspects to Britain.It is true that he, at the beginning, he initially cooperated with the court, but then he did not appear at his trial.Hornung was then sentenced in absentia.According to estimates, the accused distributed more than 2,700 pirate IPTV decoders, generated 350,000 pounds sterling with which he will be enjoying his holidays on the run and caused damage to intellectual property worth 2.33 million euros.FACT, aware that it will not be able to execute such a sentence, sees the ruling as a "warning" for anyone involved in providing illegal content.