By James Gant, The Daily Mail
Two men have admitted illegally trading in £145,000 worth of ivory from their living room. Guy Buckle, 62, and Sik Hung Or, 72, dealt in more than 100 prohibited items, including carved ivory fans.
Police searched their south London flat and found a spreadsheet detailing 136 individual pieces that had been sold on eBay totalling £145,259. Inner London Crown Court heard officers also discovered a further 291 carved ivory fans and four pieces of uncarved ivory which were also ready to be sold on the online marketplace.
Buckle and Hung Or, of Champion Hill, Walworth, appeared in the dock together this morning where they admitted three counts of exporting goods with intent to evade a restriction in relation to the 136 items on the spreadsheet as well as two other carved ivory fans seized by Royal Mail staff at Heathrow.
Both men denied dealing with goods with fraudulent intent to evade a restriction in relation to the 291 carved fans. They also pleaded not guilty to another charge of prohibited keeping for sale of a specimen in breach of endangered species regulations, namely four unworked ivory items.
Judge Jeremy Donne QC fixed their trial for March 9 next year at the same court.