Lawful use and buyer verification

The law: Crime and Policing Act 2026, sections 151 to 153

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Its SIM farm provisions come into force on 29 October 2026. They apply across the United Kingdom.

What is a SIM farm? A device capable of using five or more SIM cards, simultaneously or interchangeably, to make calls or send or receive messages to numbers on the national or international numbering plans. Every product on this site meets that definition, including the 8-port model.

Possession (section 151). A person who possesses a SIM farm commits an offence unless they can show a good reason or lawful authority. The Act gives examples of good reason: purposes connected with broadcasting, public transport operations, electronic communications networks or services, and freight tracking or monitoring. The list is not exhaustive; the Home Office guidance confirms that other genuine purposes, including ordinary business communications, testing and public safety operations, can be a good reason. What matters is that the purpose is real and lawful.

Supply (section 152). A person who supplies a SIM farm commits an offence unless they can show that (a) the supply was in the course of business or they had lawful authority; (b) they took reasonable steps to verify that the recipient would have good reason or lawful authority to possess it; and (c) before supplying, they recorded the specified information: the date of supply, a description of the device, the recipient's name and any registration number, the recipient's address and registered office, and a description of the verification steps taken.

Penalties. Both offences are tried summarily and carry a fine (unlimited in England and Wales; up to level 5 in Scotland and Northern Ireland). The Act also gives police powers of entry and search for evidence of these offences.

Sources: section 151, section 152 and the Home Office guidance on GOV.UK.

Statutory references on this page were last checked against legislation.gov.uk and the Home Office guidance on GOV.UK on 28 September 2026.

Legitimate uses

The government guidance and the Act between them describe these as examples of good reason:

• Broadcasting and programme making, including news gathering and live streaming from events
• Public transport operations, such as on-train Wi-Fi and vehicle connectivity
• Operating electronic communications networks and services, including network testing and security work
• Freight tracking and monitoring, especially in remote locations
• Public safety and emergency operations
• Business communications with a genuine purpose: notifications, reminders, two-way customer messaging, machine-to-machine alerts and telemetry, and software or handset testing

What the law is aimed at is the use of SIM farms to send scam and fraudulent messages at scale, to evade sender-verification controls, or to create accounts fraudulently. We do not supply equipment for those purposes and we will not knowingly supply to anyone who intends them.

What we ask at checkout

Every online order passes through a short verification step before payment. It takes about a minute and asks for:

1. Your full name and email address
2. Who is buying: limited company, sole trader, public body, overseas company or private individual
3. Organisation name and, where one exists, the company or charity registration number
4. The main intended use, chosen from a list, and a short free-text description
5. A declaration that the equipment will be possessed and used with good reason or lawful authority under sections 151 and 152, and not for unsolicited or fraudulent messaging, unlawful account creation, or evading network or platform controls

Your delivery and billing addresses are collected by Stripe during payment. Where a UK company number is given we check it automatically against the Companies House register and note the company's name and status. We may email you before dispatch if anything needs clarifying, for example if the description of use is very brief or does not match the organisation type. Trade and multi-unit enquiries go through the same process by email.

The record we keep

For each supply we retain: date of supply; description of the device (model, channel count, quantity); the recipient's name, organisation and registration number; delivery and billing addresses; the stated intended use and declaration with its timestamp; the Companies House check result; the payment reference; and a description of the verification steps taken. The record is stored securely, retained for six years in line with our other business records, and disclosed only where the law requires. It is not used for marketing.

When we refuse

We decline and refund orders where the stated use is unlawful, where the information given is inconsistent or cannot be verified to a reasonable standard, or where we have other grounds to believe the equipment would be misused. We would rather lose a sale than supply a SIM farm to a fraudster, and the law now requires that judgement of us.

Your duties as a buyer

Keep your purchase confirmation, SIM contracts and a short written statement of purpose together, so you can show good reason if asked. Use SIMs on tariffs that permit your kind of sending. Comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations for any marketing, with UK GDPR for personal data in your logs, and with your operators' terms. Do not alter IMEIs; that is a separate offence under the Mobile Telephones (Re-programming) Act 2002. If your circumstances change and you no longer have a reason to hold the equipment, sell it only to a buyer who does, keeping your own record of the supply, or dispose of it.