Report by ANDREW McGILL A FAMILY man has admitted selling illegal pornographic DVDs and videos from a stockpile in his garage. Adrian Reading, 40, of Elizabeth Drive, Huntingdon, was said to have earned £6,000 by selling the recordings, which he advertise

Report by ANDREW McGILL

A FAMILY man has admitted selling illegal pornographic DVDs and videos from a stockpile in his garage.

Adrian Reading, 40, of Elizabeth Drive, Huntingdon, was said to have earned £6,000 by selling the recordings, which he advertised under the company name 'Cheeky Monkey'.

Reading, who is married with two grown-up children, pleaded guilty to seven charges of supplying unclassified or explicit recordings at Huntingdon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

The court was told Reading had a collection of nearly 300 DVDs and videos in his garage. Amongst the collection were nine unclassified recordings, while the rest were rated R18 and should only legally be sold in licensed premises, such as sex shops.

Frank Chandley, prosecuting for Cambridgeshire County Council, told the court Reading had been warned by Trading Standards officers in July and October 2005 that selling the material was illegal, but he continued to trade.

Mr Chandley said Trading Standards officers had arranged to meet Reading on two occasions to purchase DVDs. Reading had driven to meet the officers on both occasions, bringing with him plastic boxes full of pornographic movies.

The court heard that Reading made £500-600 per month selling the films, 299 of which were seized by Trading Standards officials at his garage in early 2006.

Defending Reading, Elaine Havord said he client began selling the DVDs and videos after hearing about the idea from a friend who ran a similar business in Essex.

She said: "Of all the videos only nine were unclassified...the rest could be legally bought in sex shops. He was not making illegal copies to sell on. This was, in his view, a legitimate business."

Ms Havord said Reading sold the films for only a short period of time - from July 2005 to April 2006 - while he was out of work and did not make substantial profit from them.

She added that appearing in court was "a cause of embarrassment" to Reading and his family, and it had not been his intention to supply unclassified items.

Magistrates fined Reading £1,600 - £800 for the unclassified films and £800 for the R18 movies, and ordered him to pay £1,906 in costs. They also ordered the destruction of the seized films.

Speaking outside court, Mr Chandley said: "Hopefully this case will encourage people to check they are acting within the boundaries of the law and take heed of warnings issued by Trading Standards.