August 2011

Convicted Castle Douglas man’s cash haul

Smart pictured in 2008

A SEX offender who was jailed for 11 months for selling obscene films made an estimated £20,000 from the enterprise.

Castle Douglas newsagent Ronald Smart was sent to prison after being convicted for a second time of possessing sexually explicit videos and dvds with intent to distribute them.

Forty-two-year-old Smart, who pocketed thousands of pounds from the mail order business, was described at Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court as having “complete disregard for the law”.

Sentencing him, Sheriff Shirley Foran said: “There is no other option but a custodial sentence.”

She told Smart, who is also being investigated under the Proceeds of Crime Act, that he would have been given a 15-month sentence but for his guilty plea.

The disgraced businessman’s solicitor, Bill McVicar, disputed the £20,000 figure and argued that there was no need to jail his client. He insisted that the public interest would best be served if Smart was to complete a community payback order and the maximum period of probation.

But Sheriff Foran said: “It would be fair to say that you are no direct risk or harm to the public.

“But some of those who feature in the material, have used or may have come across this material accidently may have been affected adversely and may have come under such harm.”

The sheriff added: “You have shown complete disregard of the law after being charged previously for a similar offence.”

Smart was sentenced to four months in prison in 2004 on child porn charges and put on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

But within a year he was peddling obscene films while appealing his conviction.

Smart finally served his four month prison sentence in 2006.

Undeterred he continued in his profitable trade.

Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court was told on Thursday that he had admitted possessing films with a view to distributing them between February 2005 and November 2007.

Smart, who was fined £10,000, had £23,000 confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act and ordered to pay the taxman £9,800 after his first conviction in 2004, will find out in October if he faces another financial penalty.