The landlord of the Horse and Groom pub in Sudbury has been fined more than £2,000 after screening Premier League football matches without paying.

Vaughan Evans, of the East Street pub, failed to turn up to Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court yesterday so the case was dealt with in his absence. He faced charges of dishonestly screening the games in his pub with intent to avoid payment on four occasions between August and October last year.

Andrew Johnson, prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, said investigator Roy Stevens went to the pub in March last year and discovered a live game on Sky Sports One was being shown.

The court was told that following a number of attempts, the investigator spoke with Evans in June.

“On that day he said to the investigator he had been receiving letters about showing football and he was fed up about being threatened,” Mr Johnson said. He told the investigator he was using foreign broadcast channels, but when he returned in August the Sky Sports logo was on the screen during the Liverpool versus Southampton Premier League match.

The court heard there was no agreement in place for Evans to show the games and the monthly fee would have been £600.49 a month.

He was fined £600 for each offence and ordered to pay costs of £2,193.54 and a victim surcharge of £60.