Counterfeit vinyl record maker sentenced to three years in the slammer after making $3.5 million

With physical media making a comeback, a man in the UK has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison for manufacturing and selling counterfeit vinyl records. Rehan Ahmed, from Southall in west London, was reportedly running a “highly organised, unlicensed operation” since 2017 that produced thousands of fake records featuring music from popular artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar. The operation is estimated to have generated nearly £2.7 million ($3.5 million) in revenue.

Ahmed’s counterfeit business, ‘Phoenix of Vinyl ’, came on the radar in 2024 after a representative from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) made a test purchase and found evidence of counterfeiting. The City of London Police raided the premises soon after and uncovered the largest stock of fake vinyl ever found in the UK, with 2,791 records by 108 different artists. In addition to the records, police officers also found four vinyl presses roughly 70 years old, along with 3,000 metal stampers, and thousands of sleeves and center labels.

A separate report by The Guardian suggests that the BPI has been involved in 43 search warrants over the past two years targeting counterfeit vinyl and CDs. They have seized around 600,000 items with an estimated value of up to £8 million ($10.7 million).

"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," said Peter Ratcliffe, director of content protection at BPI.

According to a report published by the BPI, vinyl sales in the UK have grown substantially, with 7.6 million records sold in 2025. That’s a 13.3% year-over-year increase, marking the format’s 18th consecutive year of growth. Vinyl revenue also rose 19.9% year-over-year to £174.7 million ($234 million), with the BPI reporting in March that it was the format’s highest annual revenue in more than three decades.

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