Sum product

We're a little bit confused by the figures quoted by the BPI in their report on a raid on a counterfeit CD "factory" in South Shields at the New Year. They say they seized 4,500 counterfeit CDs with an estimated value of GBP22,500 - an average of five quid a CD.

(This suggests the BPI are paying way over the odds for their knock-off CDs; but whatever). However, they then reckon that the factory, with its thirty-five CD burners , had the capacity of producing over 500 fakes an hour - 16X burning speed, then. Investigators claim this meant the factory could produce GBP600,000 worth of dodgy albums a month.

But where does that add up? If the assumption is meant to be that the factory is churning out shiny discs at full pelt, round the clock, we'd be looking at GBP1.8m. To make the figures add up, they'd need for the bloke to be working an eight hour day seven days a week - which is amusingly naive. The BPI claim they were investigating this guy for four months which - if their output numbers are right - would mean that half a million CDs came out of that one place since they started to investigate it. Presumably the large number of delivery men it would take to distribute these CDs are being sought by police?