By Patrick Avenell

The Cairns Post is today reporting that a woman who purchased a mobile phone from a Dick Smith Electronics store found almost 50 pornographic images in the handset’s memory.

The woman, who is not identified in the story, describes how she purchased a “$199 Samsung” phone from the Cairns Dick Smith Electronics store. When this woman began investigating faults in the phone’s functionality, she then that discovered 49 images had been saved on the handset.

Dick Smith Electronics spokesman Benedict Brook told Current.com.au that although the Cairns Post claims these images contain sexually explicit photos of Dick Smith Electronics employees, neither Dick Smith nor Woolworths Holdings representatives had seen the images.

Current.com.au understands that the mobile phone in question was a display model, raising important questions regarding the viability of selling display stock to customers. Back in 2006, a Bing Lee store in Castle Hill was embarrassed when the general media reported that a customer purchased a memory stick containing images of an LG junket in South Korea.

Although happy to answer most questions, Brook declined to comment on what impact this incident will have to Dick Smith Electronics’ policy regarding display models. Furthermore, questions regarding the future of the Dick Smith employee believed to be in the images were also evaded.

When asked if it were true that Woolworths Corporate was currently negotiating a settlement with the woman, Brook said that these matters were subject to representatives first viewing the images.

“A customer came into the store and made a complaint, but we need to see the images before we can comment further,” said Brook.

This story provides an interesting twist on an article published on Current in July 2008. In that incident, a man was arrested and later convicted on child pornography charges after Harvey Norman employees found illegal images on a computer brought in for servicing. The roles have been reversed in this instance, with the customer catching out the retail store employees for their indiscretions.

The original Cairns Post article can be found here.