A BUSINESSMAN says he will go bankrupt after magistrates handed him a £15,000 court bill for running a sex shop without a licence.

Andrew Clark sold adult and sex items for years at XES, in Goodramgate, York, despite warnings from council officers that he needed a licence, York Magistrates were told.

Matt Boxall, of City of York Council, said that when the authority raided the shop last October, they found shelves loaded with erotic and sexual items.

The court heard the shop was still stocking adult items this week, though not in the same quantities.

Clark, 55, of Tanner Row, York, who pleaded guilty to running a sex establishment without a licence, was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay the prosecution's £1,118.30 costs.

He later branded the sentence "absolutely diabolical".

He said: "It's disgusting. I will just go bankrupt. It was out of all proportion to the seriousness of the offence. I will have to appeal."

Senior magistrate Rosemary Stubbs told him: "Not only were you trading without a licence for a significant number of years but, to a certain extent, you still are."

Mr Boxall said a licence cost £7,126 a year and, after the raid, Clark had told officers he could not afford one.

In August 2002, a council licensing officer visited the shop and found it stocked so many sex trade items that he told Clark he had to reduce his adult stock or buy a licence.

By December 2002, the sex trade stock had reduced significantly.

In 2004, Clark contacted the council about getting a sex shop licence, but he still did not have one.

On October 19, 2006, after getting a complaint about XES, officers raided the shop. Downstairs, about 17 per cent of the stock was erotic or sex-related.

But a sign on a staircase warned customers "items of an adult nature" were on display upstairs.

On the upper floor, 60 per cent of the stock was of a sexual nature.

Clark disputed the figures, saying the council had included non- erotic items such as those worn by women on hen nights and every PVC item in stock.

He claimed the correct percentage of sexual items was 38 per cent.

Since the raid, he said the sex trade stock had been reduced, but it was difficult to change stock quickly because of his financial situation.

The sexual items had helped him pay off certain debts, he said.