article_snippet.sent: Landlord Michael Thorpe has had Michael Thorpe conviction for illegally showing foreign footage of Premier League games overturned after eight years .
article_snippet.sent: Michael Thorpe says Michael Thorpe has paid a heavy price for the lengthy fight to get Michael Thorpe conviction quashed and has lost Michael Thorpe as a result.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Thorpe, 55, was convicted of showing a Premier League game without having an agreement with official broadcasters in November 2006 at the Stoke Inn in Plymouth, Devon.
article_snippet.sent: Michael Thorpe said Michael Thorpe could not afford to pay Sky TV's rates for football matches, and opted instead to show Albanian transmissions of matches, which Michael Thorpe says Michael Thorpe thought was legal.
article_snippet.sent: But Michael Thorpe was convicted, fined and ordered to pay costs eight years ago, when screening the matches was still treated as a criminal offence.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Thorpe said Mr Thorpe was 'overwhelmed' that a judge and magistrates had upheld his appeal after all this time.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Thorpe launched an appeal against Mr Thorpe conviction soon after Mr Thorpe trial, but the case   was delayed by a similar test case which went as far as the European Court of Justice.
article_snippet.sent: ThorpeMr Thorpewas further delayed until another case involving Media Protection Services Ltd, the company which took the landlord to court on behalf of the Premier League, but which no longer does so.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Thorpe was awarded Mr Thorpe legal costs, which Mr Thorpe paid privately, but Mr Thorpe would not disclose the sum.
article_snippet.sent: He said He does not know whether He can retrieve the £1,000 fine and £1,500 costs ordered by the magistrates.