"That Lorry-Load of Porn."

[Foxbark]

Greetings,
If you're old enough (like me), you might well remember, back in the day, the boys from HM Custom & Excise interdicting great big artic lorries stuffed to the gunnels with 'porn' (I assume it was all 'continental hard-core' stuff), down at the docks.For some reason Harwich Docks ring a bell in my mind.
Back in the day, the saddo that i am, I used to listen to Capital Radio (London) whilst having my breakfast and before setting off to school.I well remember the newsreaders getting a thrill out of mentioning a seized porn cargo at the docks - it was regular thing, the 'humorous' end story to the news.
It seemed to have tickled one of my teachers a lot though.I swear, from beginning to end of his lesson (history), he couldn't stop mentioning the fact that the customs had seized a 'lorry load of dirty books', again and again he mentioned it, just like some obsessional neurosis.
Strange.

[dohupa]

Originally Posted by Foxbark

....just like some obsessional neurosis.
Strange.

Strange indeed. So, what brought this back to you all of a sudden?

[shodan2011]

Originally Posted by Foxbark

Greetings,
If you're old enough (like me), you might well remember, back in the day, the boys from HM Custom & Excise interdicting great big artic lorries stuffed to the gunnels with 'porn' (I assume it was all 'continental hard-core' stuff), down at the docks.For some reason Harwich Docks ring a bell in my mind.

When it got though, the coppers used to do the odd raid on "adult" shops. It was par for the course for the shop owners; several have claimed they used to make the coppers a cup of tea and have a friendly chat. Most of the time it was the exact same coppers who kept turning up! The sentences were hardly a deterrent either; most of the owners of the shops were back out and restocking within a couple of days of the raid. All they got was a slap on the wrist anyway.

I do remember a high profile bust of stuff imported from "Your Choice" who always advertised in mags like Razzle. Even more ridiculous, this particular bust occurred just before hardcore became pretty much legal. I'm glad those days have long gone, to be honest.

[Mal Hombre]

Bastards ! That lorry load was for My Own personal use..

[pharoahegypt]

[QUOTE=shodan2011;1563249]When it got though, the coppers used to do the odd raid on "adult" shops. It was par for the course for the shop owners; several have claimed they used to make the coppers a cup of tea and have a friendly chat. Most of the time it was the exact same coppers who kept turning up! The sentences were hardly a deterrent either; most of the owners of the shops were back out and restocking within a couple of days of the raid. All they got was a slap on the wrist anyway. QUOTE]

to be honest, in my own experiences, we were often restocked and back open within a few hours... depending on whether or not we had to spend a few hours in the cells first or not...!! we deliberately designed the displays so that we could hide spare stock that the coppers never found, and as soon as the door was locked behind them, the displays got moved and new stock was put back on the shelves.

i got on okay with the coppers to be honest, a little politeness, and making them think you were trying to be good about what you sold, even though they knew you had no real say in the matter, used to go a long way. i know other guys, less polite with the old bill, who got four raids in the same time i got one. they had to do me on occasion, but im sure id also have gotten the same trouble had i not been polite wth them...?? i was even on first name terms with a couple who came in my shop often; and even scored major brownie points with them, by accident, just by being in the right place at the right time... though ill omit those details...lol.

that 'slap on the wrist' got a little harsher just as i was getting out of the game, the small two hundred quid fines suddenly changing to six months lock up minimum. the money we got paid to run the shops suddenly didnt seem that great any more.... considering i could take home five hundred easily each week, and the well paid rover workers were only taking home three hundred at the same time, you can see how the idea of spending six months as some sore assed prison 'bitch' didnt appeal none too much to me by then..!! lol. i also saw friends do that sentence, and come out as totally different people, totally on edge and just not right... i wasnt going to risk that happening to me, so left. i miss it some days, but more for the money than the other 'pleasures' working in such a shop afforded a guy in his mid twenties..lol.

[Mad Koala Bear]

Before they got into the futile and highly political interdiction of narcotics, plod/customs wasted as much time pointlessly trying to stop porn. How many poor saps got busted with a hidden Colour Cl*max whilst West End porn dealers were allowed to buy back their confiscated porn from the corrupt coppers in the West End?

[pharoahegypt]

that went on in the midlands to.... always found 'numbered orange stickered' videos cropping up on exchanges, which we all knew were how the coppers logged them once theyd been processed, then got passed around that station, before ending up back with our shops...lol. it also proved how many coppers were in fact customers, lining our illegal pockets, as well as the enemy....!!