Two music producers have been jailed for pocketing almost US$300,000 in royalties by pretending they wrote hit songs by Sir Paul McCartney, Queen and Sir Tom Jones.

Athos Poma and Giuseppe Fedi exploited a loophole at the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (ISAP) to register themselves as the writers of tracks including McCartney’s My Love, Jones’ chart hit Sex Bomb, and Liar by Queen.

They were then paid a total of $296,000 in royalties from TV and radio stations before the scam was uncovered and the two men were prosecuted for fraud.

Poma was jailed for 18 months and Fedi, who worked at ISAP and used his inside knowledge to facilitate the con, got 20 months.