A North London scrap dealer has served the world-famous ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ publisher a human rights lawsuit regarding an allegedly unlawful raid and arrest on his home.
Darius Khan, 32, was arrested last summer for purchasing and reselling over £10,000 worth of rare Sonic The Hedgehog games and memorabilia that were removed from Sega’s West London office following its closure.
However, Khan firmly believes his arrest was unlawful and last week hand delivered a human rights lawsuit he described as ‘landmark’ to Sega’s new offices.
He said: “Let’s get this party started, because I will fight and I will win.
“You made a very big mistake not realising that I studied law, and I’m always up for a fight when it comes to someone trying to bully me.”
Khan claims he purchased the consoles in good faith from a subcontractor for ‘Waste to Wonder’, a removal company authorised to dispose of certain goods from the closing office.
When contacted for comment, Waste to Wonder added that subcontractors are specifically forbidden from selling items.
Despite this, Khan claims that scrapped items end up being sold regularly by other removal companies.
After listing the consoles for sale on eBay, ten officers arrived at Khan’s doorstep at 7am to arrest him due to the tech’s potentially protected status.
The bundle listed online consisted of proprietary information like development kits containing unfinished video game prototypes never before seen by the public. Sega caught wind of the eBay listings and hired private investigators to track down Khan.
An undercover PI then contacted Khan regarding the initial listings and asked to view further stock yet to be listed online – they allegedly told Khan that they had an autistic child who would be grateful for such rare gaming memorabilia, and the information found resulted in Khan’s location.
Despite the subsequent arrest, initially charged as money laundering, the City of London Police have only charged Khan with a caution, that he now refuses to sign.
Khan said: “I’ve kind of been goading at them on Twitter, if you’re so confident in your position, hurry up and charge me – I’m not in any position to play nice anymore”
Confusion comes in where the ownership of these consoles lands, especially once ownership has been renounced by the game’s publisher through being tossed away.
However it is unclear whether the Waste to Wonder employee was permitted to remove the materials he later sold – regardless, internal sources from Sega suggest the clear-out was ‘chaotic’.
Darius could potentially be left with a criminal record he argues is unjustified, and multiple companies unsure about whose error this is.
This led to Khan finally approaching Sega in person last week at their new offices with a human rights lawsuit they refused to accept.
He said: “I was completely willing to resolve it in a civil matter.
“If they want the consoles back that bad, you can just buy them back off of me, and we can forget about all of the criminal stuff.”
Police have seized the consoles but left much of the other memorabilia that would still be considered incredibly valuable to the right collector – signed games and discontinued merchandise have been left with Khan.
Khan continues to fight his case online on the X account named ‘SEGASTOLEMYCONSOLES’, which features an AI Generated photo of the company’s mascot arresting Khan.
Sega did not reply to a request for comment, but a City of London Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm that an investigation is currently ongoing in relation to the alleged possession of criminal property.
“Three people have been arrested and four interviewed voluntarily in connection with the matter. They were all released under investigation pending further enquiries.
“We have received a complaint in relation to the investigation, which is currently being reviewed. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
Featured image credit: Darius Khan
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