Dublin District Court heard the shop assistant was prosecuted because she was in charge of the store at the time of the raid, while her employers were out of the country. It is illegal to supply any video recording that has not been certified by the Irish Film Censor's Office.

Judge Catherine Murphy said she would only consider leaving the accused without convictions if the shop's owners made a €20,000 charity donation.

McFerran's barrister said she would not be able to pay a fine that large and the judge "might as well fine her €1 million".

McFerran, of Castle Lawns, Seabury, Malahide, pleaded not guilty to 30 charges related to the possession and supply of each uncertified pornographic DVD title. The charges were under the Video Recordings Act.

She claimed she knew nothing about the regulations and believed that everything for sale in the shop, Miss Fantasia on South William Street, was "above board".

intelligent

But Judge Catherine Murphy said the accused was an "intelligent girl" who was the "front of shop figure" and was responsible for the DVDs on the day of the raid.

The owner of the company that owns Miss Fantasia is businessman Justin Parr, the court was told. An unidentified woman, who was named as a co-partner in the same firm, accompanied the defendant to court.

The court heard 10 sample titles were selected from the seized DVDs and sent to the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) to establish that they were never certified for supply in this country.

Ger Connolly, Acting Director of Film Classification with the IFCO, told the court there had never been supply certificates in force for any of the works. He watched each DVD to establish the title and content and they were handed in to court to give the judge "a flavour" of the content.

Sgt Colm Kelly said an operation was set up in September 2008 to tackle the illegal supply of "videos of this nature". A complaint was made to the gardai and two officers from Pearse Street Station were sent to the shop to verify this. Gardai returned on September 19 with a search warrant.

McFerran was behind the counter and the garda showed her the warrant when she asked to see it.

"The shop sold various items of paraphernalia of the sex trade, I suppose, there is no other way of describing it," Sgt Kelly said. "There was lingerie of that nature, costume pieces, dressing-up outfits, for want of a better word. Sex toys."

Sgt Kelly said the DVDs seized were missing the required IFCO stamp.

The defendant told the court she had been studying fine art at DIT and was aged 19 at the time. She was given no training in the legal classification requirements for videos.

"At the time, I had no idea, I never fully understood the process or the complications," she said. "I presumed if they were for sale in a shop, there wouldn't be a problem."

The State Solicitor argued that the defendant was "well aware of what she was doing".

Defence Barrister Brendan Hennessy said it was not reasonable to have expected the accused to go to her employer and check that the videos were properly for sale.

aphelan@herald.ie