About James Higginbotham

Sorry for the stop of updates today. ( it makes me as sad as Yoshi above) I had family things come up, and I had to travel …
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Friday 11th April/… A Wii chipping factory has been tracked down to fraudsters in Leicestershire. The Wii is the nation’s favourite family console – so much so that the Japanese corporation hasn’t been able to keep up with UK demand for not one but two Christmases! But an undercover sting by Leicestershire’s Trading Standards Department backed by the games industry’s own crime unit unveiled a counterfeit plot potentially worth £millions.

As a result of enquiries made by TSD officers and investigators from ELSPA, the trade body for the country’s major games publishers, a home was raided in the Coalville area of Leicestershire this week. The raid, which was undertaken by Leicestershire TSD and police, turned up vital evidence suggesting the non-descript home actually housed sophisticated counterfeiting apparatus – including an industrial unit to churn out rogue console chips. At least two people have so far been arrested for their part in the ‘fraud factory’. More than 2,000 counterfeit chips, were recovered from the raid. These consisted mostly of Wii console chips although some were for Xbox 360 and PlayStation2 consoles. A number of consoles were also seized. After the planned trial, all the rogue chips will be destroyed – if only to avoid disappointment amongst the nation’s competitive children and parents.

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