A LARGE amount of electronic equipment has been seized in an operation in Cork targeting Pay TV piracy.

Seven premises were searched by gardaí on foot of a complaint made to gardaí in relation to piracy of Virgin Media and Sky services.

It is understood that approximately €20 million was lost to piracy last year, according to gardaí.

Documentation has also been seized as part of today's operation and gardaí will now forensically go through this and the equipment to help them probe the reach of the piracy.

It is believed a group based in Cork have a customer service base of between 15,000 and 20,000 people across the country.

The garda operation has been carried out under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.

Customers of the illegal operation were all due to have their service cut off today.