Vinyl came back from the dead – and so did the bootleggers: inside the booming business of knock-off records

As LP sales boom in the UK, so has the illegal trade in poor-quality fakes. But the record detectives are fighting back

In July 2018, the peace of an upmarket cul-de-sac in rural Hampshire was suddenly disturbed by the arrival of two police officers and three people from trading standards banging on the door of a& big redbrick house. They had a warrant to carry out what was called an “inspection”, but was really a raid.

The man they were investigating was 50-year-old Richard Hutter, and the job they had to do that day took three hours. As they searched his home, he spent most of the time in the kitchen, insisting that he had done nothing wrong. His mood was one of shock and deep discomfort. For at least six years, he had quietly sold his wares online and funded an apparently affluent lifestyle to the tune of around £1.2m; now, the consequences were coming home.