A businessman selling sex films was ordered to pay nearly £6,000 in fines and costs yesterday - because the movies were not blue enough.

Nicholas Griffin's company sold the videos, costing up to £50, from adult shops in York and Grimsby, promising customers "hard-core" material.

But customers expecting an erotic tale in Secrets of a Sensuous Nurse got nothing more steamy than a 30-year-old comedy starring Ursula Andress and Jack Palance.

Confessions of a Sex Maniac, again tagged "hard-core", told the story of an architect who wished to build an office block shaped like breasts, magistrates in York were told.

In a unique case brought by the city's trading standards department, officers took up three complaints made by disgruntled customers and prosecuted Griffin Star Printing Company under the Trade Descriptions Act.

Prosecutor Michael Taylor said the charges against the company were only samples of numerous breaches.

"Such videos can be seen on late-night terrestrial television," said Mr Taylor.

"They were not the more interesting videos these people were seeking . . . the public have been misled."

Mr Griffin, 30, of Clee Crescent, Grimsby, is a director of the three-man company, which admitted the offences.

After the case, he said: "I am amazed people have the audacity to complain about things like that.

"In future I will make sure that I know what I am selling."