A 35 year old man has been fined £3,300 and also ordered to pay costs of £3,000 after admitting 11 counts of supplying unclassified porn films in the Swindon area. Swindon Magistrates Court heard that the man operated a business supplying shops and garages in Swindon with films from the back of a van, and that the business turned over £42,000 a year, giving him a salary of £20,000.
Trading Standards officers were tipped off about the operation and seized quantities of the DVDs in several operations in 2007. Staff at a garage informed the officers of the name of the company that was supplying them and the man was later arrested while making a delivery.
Although the films were unclassified, they contained content that would normally have been passed R18, and in light of the defendant’s previous clean record he was fined £300 on each of the 11 counts and ordered to pay £3,000 costs instead of receiving a jail sentence.
Swindon is one of several UK local authorities that refuses to grant sex shop licenses, preventing any trader in the borough from legally selling R18 material.
