Tenby's Royal Playhouse Cinema has joined forces with film distributors Warner Brothers in trying to crack down on film piracy.

Warner Brothers have been issuing cinema owners across Britain with night vision goggles to try to combat the chances of film-goers illegally filming the latest blockbuster movies.

"With the latest Harry Potter film having just been released, it's clear that distributors are sending out a strong message that they won't stand for film piracy anymore," said Stephen Williams, who recently took over the running of Tenby's Royal Playhouse Cinema.

"The night vision goggles are an incredible piece of kit and with the infra red light, they are ideally designed to detect and pick up things in a pitch black cinema.

"There are so many methods by which film pirates can capture the latest flicks these days -even mobile phones have built in video cameras," continued Stephen.

"I've already made use of the goggles, not only to check if anyone is illegally filming, but to monitor that kids are not chewing gum, which can be another major problem throughout cinemas when not disposed of properly," he added.

With 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' currently breaking box office records in the UK, Stephen thinks the distributors have acted at the right time to deter film piracy, and on a lighter note the film's promotional poster banners, currently hanging outside the cinema, have attracted a lot of interest from Harry Potter fans.

"We've had such a lot of people asking if they can have the posters when we've finished with them, that we thought the only way to be fair to fans is to raffle them off for charity," explained Stephen.

"People can buy tickets for the poster raffle at £1 from our box office and all money raised will go to the Tenby Cottage Hospital League of Friends. We'll be making the draw on the evening of June 17 when the Harry Potter film is due to have its final screening."

Stephen is hoping to raise at least £1,000 from the raffle and by auctioning some of the many posters the cinema has collected over the years; he also hopes that others with cinema related goodies might be willing to auction them on the evening to help achieve the sum.

Anyone interested in lending support to the campaign can contact Stephen at the Royal Playhouse Cinema on 01834 844809.