PORNOGRAPHIC DVDs are being sold illegally in at least two Wyre Forest newsagents, it has been claimed.
Licensed adult shop owner Tony Tozer raised the alarm with Worcestershire Trading Standards after finding adult magazines bundled with hardcore films in two shops in Kidderminster and Stourport.
Now a furious Mr Tozer, who owns Taboo in Blackwell Street and an associated website, wants action taken against anyone who breaks the law after Trading Standards confirmed it was investigating. Tony Tozer with some of the magazines - and DVDs - he found on sale.
He feels aggrieved after a prosecution brought by the county organisation - for selling R18 videos over the internet - left him nearly £6,000 out of pocket 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 around the country of 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 plus £5,442 costs at Redditch Magistrates Court.
He believes the law needs updating to take the internet into account.
And he is now fuming after finding three newsagents - including one in Worcester - with magazines for sale packaged with hardcore, sexually explicit DVDs.
Of two shown to the Shuttle/Times and News, one carried an R18 rating while another appeared not to have been given a rating by the British Board of Film Classification.
Mr Tozer is seething as he is 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 certain shops, which are not being named.
"It's unfair. I run my business legitimately, out in the open.
"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 around the country and prosecute some of the website owners - who "don't run warehouses, employ staff or pay taxes" - illegally selling R18 films on the internet.
"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 following Mr Tozer's discovery.
A spokesman for the national Trading Standards Institute said priorities would differ from area to area, adding: "Different Trading Standards services have their own way of doing things; some are better resourced than others, depending on the level of funding they get from their local authorities."
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