A MAN sold hundreds of illegal pornographic DVDs at shops and garages in Swindon.

Philip Tobias, 35, of Akenfield Close, Haydon End, was ordered to pay more than £6,000 after admitting 11 counts of owning and selling the explicit adult films at Swindon Magistrates' Court on Friday.

He also asked the court to take another nine similar counts into consideration relating to more than 100 illegal films.

The court heard that Trading Standards officers seized stacks of the DVDs, which did not show the legally required classifications, in a number of operations during February and March last year.

Rosie Bone, prosecuting, told the court Tobias' XXX Sales company had a £42,000 annual turnover and he paid himself a £20,000 a year salary from the proceeds of selling the blue movies out of the back of a van.

Mrs Bone said some of the films, with names like Private, 40-Something Auditions, Bobbie's Fantasies and Tight Fit, would most likely have been given R18 certificates, meaning they could have only been legally sold in sex shops and not in garages and newsagents.

"As a result of information, Russell Sharland from Swindon Trading Standards entered a premises in Crombey Street," Mrs Bone said.

"He bought magazines and DVD packs and subsequently found the DVDs didn't have the classification certificates.

"Officers then visited a number of stores from which packets containing DVDs were being sold.

"At the Texaco service station on Marlborough Road staff said they had been dealing with a company called XXX Sales."

Trading Standards officers then made visits to A&Z Stores in Crombey Street, VK Stores in County Road, Penhill Stores in Cricklade Road, SN Stores in William Street, Ferndale Newsagents, in Ferndale Road, and Blagrove Service Station on Great Western Way.

"They later returned to Marlborough Road where Mr Tobias was making a delivery," she said.

"Inside his van they found a diary, business documents and 479 packets of DVDs. He was arrested and taken to Gablecross."

In an interview with the police and Trading Standards, Tobias said that he had run his business selling adult material for three years.

Mrs Bone said: "He said his products were offered to vendors on a 50 per cent sale or return basis.

"He said he would spend one day a week putting DVDs into packets in the garage at his girlfriend's house. The rest of the week he was trading from his van."

Gordon Hotson, defending, said: "We are talking about selling uncertified DVDs.

"We are not talking about films containing children or unlawful material.

"These DVDs were adult in nature, but had not been put through the film classification board."

After serious consideration magistrates ruled that they could have sentenced Tobias to a jail term for the offences, but in light of his previous clean record agreed to hand out a financial punishment instead.

He was told to pay £300 for each of the 11 counts, and an extra £3,000 towards prosecution costs.