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By Chris
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(From The Sun)

An Inventor yesterday won libel damages against Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles — for branding his new product a "con".

Andrew Wilkey invented a plastic film to protect CDs from scratches and spillages.

A report on Newsbeat in 1999 claimed the CD-S Compact Disc Shield did not work and Moyles, 31, called it a "con".
The BBC later issued a statement saying the product did protect CDs, but sales collapsed.

Yesterday Mr Wilkey, of Cardiff, won undisclosed damages in the High Court against Moyles and the BBC.

(From icWales)

Welsh inventor who sued the BBC and Radio One DJ Chris Moyles over a claim that his new product was a "con" yesterday accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages.

Businessman Andrew Wilkey, who lives in Llantwit Major, took legal action against the outspoken star and the corporation following a 1999 broadcast which left him "appalled and humiliated", according to his lawyer.

The case arises from a news report broadcast on Radio One in 1999, after which Moyles, during a discussion with the news presenter, made the derogatory statement about a new form of scratchproof CD developed by Mr Wilkey, who had been interviewed during the news package.

Mr Wilkey set up DAS Systems in 1995 to exploit a new system which enabled a coating to be applied selectively to parts of one side of a label - rather than it having to be applied to the whole of one side as was the norm.

His counsel, Andrew Monson, told Mr Justice Tugendhat at London's High Court that, in 1997, Mr Wilkey successfully patented his method of manufacturing labels.

He came up with the idea of applying a clear plastic film to CDs in order to protect the data area from scratches and spillages.

His invention meant that he could manufacture a protective label which did not stick to the data area of the CD, but only adhered to the adjacent non-data areas.

Mr Wilkey needed to find a protective material that was transparent and did not prevent the laser in the CD player from reading the data on the disc.

He identified optically clear polycarbonate as a suitable material and launched the CD-S Compact Disc Shield in September 1999.

Mr Monson said that, in November 1999, BBC Radio One's Newsbeat programme carried a report which included an interview with Mr Wilkey and the results of a short studio testing session.

The report concluded that the CD shield did not work and Moyles referred to it as a "con".

Mr Monson said that Mr Wilkey was "appalled and humiliated" by the broadcast and made an immediate complaint.

The BBC broadcast an acknowledgement that the product protected the CD from scratches and did not impair the sound quality of CDs when used on domestic hi-fi equipment.

However, despite the publication of this statement on November 3, 1999, sales of the product collapsed, and the company was forced into liquidation.

Mr Monson said the BBC had now made it clear that it did not intend to impugn Mr Wilkey's integrity and accepted that he launched the product in good faith.

It had agreed to acknowledge this publicly and to pay his costs and a substantial sum in damages.

The BBC's counsel, Joanne Neenan, confirmed that it was never its intention to cast doubt on Mr Wilkey's good name and it accepted that he had never made inflated claims about the utility of the product.

Figures released last month showed Moyles, the self-styled "Saviour of Radio One", helped Radio One achieve its highest audience in two years.

The station has added more than half a million listeners in the past year to reach an audience of 10.24m.

Breakfast DJ Moyles, whose sidekick Aled Haydn Jones comes from Aberystwyth, increased his audience to 6.26m.