UK- A READING pornographer has been ordered to hand over more than £350,000 he made from a lucrative mail order blue movie empire.
And a court heard balding 44-year-old Russell Tyler will have to sell five houses he owns across the Reading area to meet the August 9 payment deadline set by Judge Christopher Critchlow.
Reading Crown Court heard the market value of the houses was £411,860 but the judge ruled he made £353,100 operating his porn business from a factory unit in Milford Road and also ordered him to pay £8,750 costs.
Ringleader Tyler, of August End, west Reading, and business colleague John Wilkins, also 44, of Bucknell Avenue, Pangbourne were each jailed for 21 months last July.
Tyler, who admitted making £100,000 in 15 months alone, pleaded guilty to five charges of converting criminal property, known as money laundering.
Wilkins admitted nine offences of having obscene articles to publish for gain, three of possessing video recordings to supply and five money laundering charges.
The same court heard then that detectives raided the Milford Road warehouse at the end of a 30-month inquiry, seizing 12,000 videos and DVDs, 9% of it unclassified and illegal for British sale.
Prosecutor John Price said Tyler was the main beneficiary and Wilkins was responsible for the day-to-day business.
The sophisticated operation supplied porn to up to 100,000 mail order names obtained legitimately through the licensed XTC sex shop Tyler owned in Oxford Road.
They had nine computers, 18 500GB hard drives, nine DVD players and 49 video recorders, and police seized two £15,000 “robotic” DVD copiers, each capable of copying one disc every six minutes.
The pair used a London business address to receive orders on coupons cut from magazines and the orders were dispatched from the Reading warehouse.
After the confiscation hearing, Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, who heads the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit, said: “This has been a long and complex investigation. The crimes were not straightforward.
“On one level they were putting obscene material into the homes of people who find it offensive.
“On another level they were producing films that are often made whilst subjecting victims, or vulnerable people, to acts that are degrading and exploitative.”