A PIRATE radio operator from Chorley has been convicted following a ground-breaking court case.

Investigators pulled the plug on Peter Allridge who was caught broadcasting music from the internet over the Chorley area from his bedroom station Dodgy FM.

It is the first case brought by the Radiocommunications Agency where an internet link had been used to source music for transmission.

Allridge, aged 24, of Belmont Drive, was convicted at Chorley Magistrates Court on May 8 of using unlicensed broadcast radio equipment after admitting the offence.

He was given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 costs after pleading guilty to an an offence under Section 1 (1) of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. He was also ordered to forfeit all his broadcasting equipment to the Radiocommunications Agency. Officers from the agency were on duty in the Chorley area on November 18 last year when they monitored illegal transmissions from a station identifying itself as Dodgy FM on a frequency of 106.5Mhz. These were traced to an address in Belmont Drive, where officers found equipment transmitting from an upstairs bedroom. The equipment comprised a computer which was receiving transmission through the internet and this in turn was linked to a transmitter which broadcast the programme throughout Chorley.

A spokesman for the agency confirmed: "This is the first case where the internet has been used to service the transmission.