Two Boots photo lab technicians amassed a huge collection of erotic pictures of children and young teenage girls while developing unsuspecting customers' prints at a busy store.
The lab rats' secret stash of images - collected over ten years - which filled over eight carrier bags and two boxes were hidden in a concealed compartment found by a BT engineer installing a phone line.
Many of the pictures were innocent snaps of teenage girls in their bedrooms dressing-up for a night out with friends and holiday snaps customers brought to be developed at the store in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Rotherhithe, South-East London.
Married father-of-oneThomas Befroy, 38, of Beckenham Hill Road, Beckenham, Kent and Alan Hermon, 49, of Summerfield Street, Lewisham, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent pictures of children, with a view to distributing them, or showing them to someone else, on or before October 23, last year, contrary to the Protection of Children Act.
Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court (pictured) heard 78 of the images were deemed Level One - the lowest level of indecency - but one was Level Two, which includes non-penetrative sexual activity between children or solo masturbation by a child.
Prosecutor Mr. James Le Grys said: "The offence took place at Boots in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. There is a photo lab in the store and a mini-lab at the rear where these two defendants had worked since 1989."
The BT engineer, installing an internet connection, raised the alarm after uncovering the stash in the compartment and further indecent pictures were found in a locked cupboard during a police search.
"The engineer placed his hands inside and found several Boots carrier bags. They contained images of a sexual nature," added Mr Le Grys. "He reported the images to management and they called the police.
"A number of photographs were of young women under the age of eighteen and dating between 1997 and 2008."
Befroy, who has a seven year-old daughter and is now subject to a social services assessment and cannot be unsupervised with the child had left the branch six weeks before the discovery to take over as manager at Boots in Battersea.
He was team leader at Surrey Quays and when questioned by police told them Hermon was responsible for making extensive copies.
"When Mr. Hermon was questioned he denied the allegations, but then admitted making extensive copies of sexual images and Mr Befroy was aware," said Mr. Le Grys.
The 78 Level One images "depict nudity or erotic posing, but no sexual activity" explained the prosecutor. "There is one of Level Two. A girl wearing no underwear.
"Both admitted using Boots' machinery to copy prints and admitted looking at them and showing them to others.
"The collection got so big they had to store it in the cupboard," added Mr. LeGrys.
All the images of the unknown girls involve females aged approximately 12 - 17 years-old.
The defendant's lawyer Miss I Hussain told the court: "Basically in relation to these offences both worked at Boots together in this lab and on occasion they would reprint photo's.
"There were also photo's of concerts, anything that was of interest to them."
Urging the court not to jail her clients she added: "These were isolated offences. There was no commercial element, the distribution was just between them. There were searches of their addresses and nothing was found there.
"They have lost their good character and will be subject to the Sex Offender's Register and they have lost their employment.
"They are now both on benefits, not in a position to look for work while awaiting sentencing and will have to ensure any future employer knows about these convictions.
"It was not a sophisticated offence and there does not seem to be a high level of personal interest," added Miss Hussain. "These men have been working lengthy hours and this has happened in the time they have been working.
"It is not a case where they have gone looking for such photo's and there is no contact with any paedophiles.
"They reprinted the photographs, looked at them, then put them away in a bag or box and not looked at them again," said the lawyer.
"A lot of them are teenage girls in their bedrooms maybe getting ready for a night out.
"I ask you not to give them prison sentences. This isn't something that would happen again," the lawyer told District Judge Mr. Stuart Black.
The Judge refused a prosecution application for a child protection order banning the defendant's from possessing images of children after Miss Hussain said Mr. Befroy's photograph's of his daughter displayed all over his house would immediately put him in breach if one was made.
"I don't think this would work in these circumstances," she said. "He would be unable to fulfill his fatherly duties."
Mr. Black imposed three-year supervision orders on both defendants and ordered them to attend the Community Sex Offenders Group Work Programme.
He told them: "I am concerned about the number of photograph's, the length of time and the covert and secretive behaviour that was going on as well as the breach of trust. These are serious matters, frankly."
A spokesman for the company said: "There are strict operating procedures in place to safeguard customers' confidentiality when developing photos and were are extremely concerned that these former employees appeared to have breached them all in an act of gross misconduct.
"We have a zero tolerance policy to issues of this nature and would like to reassure our customers that we have taken these allegations extremely seriously and acted immediately when they came to light."
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