A Llanelli man with a previous conviction for a sexual offence against a child has avoided going straight to prison after admitting he broke the terms of a court order through his use of the clothing resale app Vinted.
Simon Fuge, 46, of Ty Stafford, Llanelli, was given six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, at Swansea Crown Court.
The sentence
Fuge had already pleaded guilty to two offences:
- Breaching a sexual harm prevention order
- Attempting to breach a sexual harm prevention order
Judge Huw Rees allowed a one-quarter reduction for the guilty pleas. As well as the suspended term, Fuge must complete an accredited programme and is subject to a probation requirement.
The judge explained that because the sentence was shorter than 12 months, the law obliged him to suspend it unless there were exceptional circumstances. He told Fuge that the “attractive submissions” of his barrister meant he would not be sent to prison immediately. He warned him to be careful about what he did online, as police would be keeping a close eye on him.
Judge Rees added that he hoped rehabilitation would succeed in stopping Fuge from engaging in “poisonous and harmful” conduct.
The order he broke
Prosecutor Brian Simpson told the court that Fuge has been subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order since 2018. It barred him from unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 and from using social media apps under other names. Monitoring software had been fitted to his phones as part of the arrangements for managing him in the community.
The software alert
In December 2025, the software flagged Fuge’s use of Vinted to police. Officers then accessed his devices remotely and saw that he was in sexual contact with another user of the app, including talk about his penis. No offences were recorded at that stage.
Those concerns led police to look further into his online activity. They found sexual messages on WhatsApp, although there was no evidence the person on the other end was a child.
The visit to his home
Officers went to Fuge’s home in Llanelli on 28 February 2026. The court heard it took “some time” before he answered their knocking.
Once inside, they seized and examined his phones, but the conversations they had earlier viewed remotely were gone. The prosecutor said police suspected Fuge had used the delay at the door to delete the incriminating chats.
Other Vinted conversations were still on the phones. One began as a discussion about clothes with someone who claimed to be 16. During it, Fuge asked the unknown seller about “JO”, which police believed was a reference to “jerking off”.
Police also discovered that Vinted had already shut down a previous account belonging to Fuge after receiving several reports raising concerns about messages he had sent. The court heard he had opened a Vinted account in a fake name.
When interviewed, Fuge denied having any contact with children. He told officers Vinted was an adults-only site and that he had used it to buy and sell clothes.
His previous offending
In 2018, Fuge was jailed for 54 months for a sexual offence against a child.
The court heard that he had set up a fake Facebook profile of a teenage girl to lure a schoolboy. Having deceived the boy, Fuge then posed as a friend of the girl, who did not exist, and groomed the victim over several weeks. This included buying him sweets and a cinema trip, before Fuge performed a sex act on him.
What the court heard for Fuge
The court was told Vinted had been in the news in recent weeks over concerns that children were being groomed on the app.
Dean Pulling told the court the platform has a policy that users must be over 18, and that Fuge had used it legitimately to buy and sell clothes. He accepted the breach had been deliberate. However, he said there was no evidence Fuge had been in contact with anyone under 16 and no attempt had been made to meet anyone.
Mr Pulling said life had not been easy for Fuge since he moved back to Llanelli after his release from custody. He said references from neighbours and friends who know about his past spoke well of him. This was the first time Fuge had breached the order since it was made in 2018.
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