A father and his two sons who used dozens of Chinese “slaves” to pull off Britain’s biggest DVD piracy scam have been jailed for up to six years each.

The “sophisticated” operation, which made up to £7 million, hid behind a “veneer of respectability” as it imported cutting edge equipment from the Far East.

Khalid Sheikh, 53, and sons Rafi, 26, and Sami, 28, used it to “burn” the latest box office hits like Ice Age 2, the Da Vinci Code and Iron Man to “the best industry standards possible”.

Quite often the lucrative productions were being touted on street corners for as little as £3 each even before their big screen debuts.

The family, whose members were claiming benefits, further boosted their multi-million pound turnover by reproducing so many porn and bestiality films some sex film shops were driven out of business.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard a hallmark of the success of the three-year fraud was the purchase of a £658,000 warehouse headquarters in Essex just two years after starting in a small shop in Walthamstow, east London.

They farmed their business out to a string of cramped “factories” - semi-detached houses scattered across the capital - with enough raw materials to copy hundreds of thousands of DVDs.

They were staffed by “largely illegal Chinese immigrants”, some of whom are thought to have been smuggled into the UK.

John Hardy, QC, prosecuting, told the court they “worked round-the-clock in conditions of virtual slavery”.

Police believe much of the gang’s “vast” ill-gotten gains have been smuggled out of the country.

However, tens of thousands were spent by some of the conspirators on first class flights to luxury holiday destinations around the world.

Also on their pleasure list were numerous visits to lap dancing clubs, including Spearmint Rhino.

A confiscation hearing will be held later.

Rafi and Sami Sheikh, of Larkshall Road, North Chingford, Essex, were each jailed for six years while their father, who lived with them, was jailed for four years.

By Melvyn Howe