Facing jail.. Pirates who cost Hollywood billions.

Byline: MARTIN FRICKER and IAN MURPHY

FIVE British men have become the first members of a notorious global film piracy racket to face jail.

They pleaded guilty to being in underground group The Scene, which is thought to have cost Hollywood studios billions in lost revenue. The cyber criminals were part of a plot which saw dodgy versions of 9,000 movies - like The Wolf of Wall Street - downloaded and watched by five million people since 2010.

Sahil Rafiq, 24, Ben Cooper, 33, Reece Baker, 22, Scott Hemming, 25, and Graeme Reid, 40, admitted conspiracy to defraud at Wolverhampton crown court this week and may face long jail terms when sentenced in May.

It follows a three-year investigation into The Scene, which is responsible for sharing millions of ripped off movies, music, video games, e-books and porn.

The gang is thought to have up to 100 active groups trading more than 500 titles every day.

Members use tags to identify themselves online and record films in cinemas or duplicate advanced screenings sent to critics and film festival judges.

Nick Matthew, of Federation Against Copyright Theft, said: "If they were skillful, they could have made millions." Last year, the first pirated copy of Fast & Furious 6 is said to have cost studio Universal Pictures almost PS2.5million.

martin.fricker @mirror.co.uk

5m Number of people who saw dodgy downloads. Gang pirated 9,000 films