PORNOGRAPHIC DVDs are being sold illegally in at least three Worcestershire newsagents, it has been claimed.

Licensed adult shop owner Tony Tozer raised the issue with Worcestershire Trading Standards after finding adult magazines bundled with hardcore films in shops in Worcester and Wyre Forest.

Now Mr Tozer, who owns Taboo in Kidderminster and an associated website, wants action taken against anyone who breaks the law after Trading Standards confirmed it was investigating.

£6,000.

He feels aggrieved after a prosecution - for selling R18 videos over the internet - cost him nearly £6,000 last month.

"Worcestershire Trading Standards are doing their bit - it would be nice if the national policy was enforced," he said.

Mr Tozer has repeatedly informed watchdogs about internet sites he knows to be flouting the law, which states R18 videos can only be supplied in person in a licensed sex shop.

But he says no action has been taken and he feels unlucky to have been singled out and fined £350, with £5,442 costs, at Redditch Magistrates Court.

He believes the law needs updating to take the internet into account.

He is fuming after finding newsagents with magazines for sale packaged with sexually explicit DVDs.

Mr Tozer was this week due to renew the licence needed to sell such material - at a cost of about £1,200 - while it is readily available on shelves in some shops, which are not being named.

"It's unfair. I run my business legitimately, out in the open," he said.

"You can find us on the internet - we're not one of those seedy backstreet companies you would have found 20 years ago.

"This does beg the question why am I paying a licence fee of £1,200 a year when I could just open up a newsagents? All I ask for is a level playing field."

He has also made a plea for Trading Standards to apply a consistent policy and prosecute some of the websites.

"Don't just do one person in one area - go for the rest."

Mr Tozer added he had alerted colleagues in the industry elsewhere in the UK to check their newsagents for magazines with R18 DVDs.

Worcestershire Trading Standards spokesman Charlotte Renshaw confirmed officers were aware of the situation and an investigation had been launched.

A spokesman for the national Trading Standards Institute said priorities would differ from area to area.

"Different Trading Standards services have their own way of doing things; some are better resourced than others, depending on the level of funding they receive from their local authorities," he said.