A DJ who illegally downloaded the official UK Top 40 hits every week in a £1 million music piracy operation has been jailed.

Wayne Evans, 39, pirated the weekly official Top 40 for more than a year and uploaded the music to various torrent sites.

He swindled artists out of more than £1 million between June and July last year, allowing internet users to download 700,000 illegal tracks from his two websites, DJPortal and oldskoolscouse.

Evans pleaded guilty to illegally uploading music to torrent sites and was jailed for 12 months.

Evans, from Everton, Liverpool, was first arrested last September following a joint investigation between the City of London and PRS for Music, which represents the rights of over 118,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK.

It is the first custodial sentence to arise from the two organisations working together after Evans was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.

Detective Constable Steven Kettle, from City of London Police, said: "Evans caused significant loss to the music industry and his actions will have affected jobs across the music industry.

"By working with partners such as PRS for Music we are better able to work collaboratively to ensure the best investigation of people like Evans and ensure that they are brought to justice."

Music piracy is estimated to cost the entertainment industry hundreds of millions of pounds each year in the UK alone.