Sperm dealers spared jail for £250,000 illegal online service

Two men who netted £250,000 providing women with an illegal online sperm delivery service were spared jail today.

Nigel Woodforth, 43, ran the operation from the basement of his home in Reading with 49-year-old Ricky Gage. Nearly 800 women signed up to use the service, which introduced would-be donors to women trying to conceive.

The pair were sentenced at Southwark crown court after being convicted of three charges of providing sperm without a licence.

Imposing a nine-month jail term, suspended for two years, Judge Deborah Taylor said: "Your disregard of the warnings you were given is, in my judgment, a serious aggravating feature in this case."

The judge banned them from working in the fertility business and ordered them to pay a £15,000 fine each and complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Speaking outside court, Gage said he was satisfied with the sentence: "We always believed we were doing the right thing. Obviously, it was found that we weren't and we have to get on with that."