A husband and wife from Finchley have been found guilty of a multi-million pound scam to defraud the music industry, believed to be the largest music fraud of its kind in the UK.

Naveed Shaikh, 38, and his wife Farhat Nissa, 35, of Amberden Avenue, were convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court of fraud between May 21, 2003, and December 22, 2005.

The case is the result of a year long investigation by the Metropolitan Police into CD copyright theft and pirating of legitimate music, of artists including Destiny's Child, Maria Carey, 50 Cent and Usher.

As a result of information supplied by the music industry and British and international trade organisations, police officers attended Woolwich market in October 2005 and arrested two people, Nadim Mir, 37, of Westernville Gardens, Ilford, and Ayaz Javed Qureshi, 38, a market trader of Glebelands Avenue, Ilford, who were operating a market stall selling pirated CDs.

Around 2,000 discs were seized and the arrests directly led to the arrest of another market trader and Nadim's twin, Wasim Mir, 37, of Cranley Drive, Ilford, and the seizure of an additional 35,000 illegal CDs in an east London warehouse.

The value of discs seized by the police is around £400,000, with the music industry counting its actual and projected loss as approximately £5 million.

The investigation continued and later in 2005 addresses in Hertfordshire and North London were searched, and officers seized more counterfeit music along with computers and manufacturing equipment.

It was then that Shaikh was arrested, and his wife went voluntarily to a police station where she was also arrested.

Both Qureshi and Wasim Mir pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiring to defraud. No evidence was offered against Nadim Mir.

All five were charged with a multi-million pound conspiracy to defraud the world's music industry.