A COMPANY boss has avoided jail despite having been found with more than 1,000 indecent images of children.

Christopher Dovey, 48, who is a director at Capel Plant Holdings, based in Stephenson Road, Colchester, was handed a 12 month prison sentence suspended for a year at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

The sordid collection which mainly featured pictures of young boys aged between eight and 16, was found during a raid at Dovey’s home.

Essex Police had been tipped off by American and Canadian authorities after he had ordered DVDs from a company which was under investigation for selling indecent images.

All of the images were downloaded on to seven hard drives between 2006 and 2011, the court heard.

Dovey claimed he was searching for naturist pictures, had found the indecent images by mistake and did not look at them.

Frank O’Toole, mitigating for Tovey, who was of previous good character, said: “He put the images away in a suitcase and didn’t look at them – he forgot he even had them.

“They were stored in a suitcase – he couldn’t believe he had done such a stupid thing and did not destroy them.

“The reason he kept them was because he was a hoarder, and he also has numerous images of thing such as cars.

“He has lost business as a result of the case.

“At the time he was going through a difficult period in his life after a relationship with his partner of 12 years broke down which left him traumatised and at the same time he lost his mother to cancer.”

Dovey, of Grange Road, Lawford, admitted to three counts of downloading indecent images of children in November last year.

A total of 21 images were in the most serious category A bracket as well as one film, while there were 126 category B images and 1,047 category C images.

Recorder RJ Gordon QC said: “The children included in the images are vulnerable and are being exploited. These offences are very serious indeed.”

Dovey will also have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the next year, where he will be under a supervision order from the probation service.

He will also be made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order and have to pay £320 costs.