Porn empire pays £6.5m to Sullivan

BIRMINGHAM City Football Club chairman David Sullivan trousered £6.5m last year from his extensive soft-porn empire. The year before he pocketed £7.85m.

The figures are revealed in the latest accounts of holding company Roldvale.

It controls his interests in films, magazines, websites and phone chat lines, as well as his horse-racing stable, and shares in quoted companies such as north London stockbroker Shore Capital. Roldvale has 133 subsidiaries.

His payments included £5.2m in wages and a £600,000 contribution into his pension scheme. Even after the payouts, Roldvale's profits rose 13% to £5.65m before tax. Sales increased 20% at £11.9m. Sullivan could not be reached for comment.

Tthe documents briefly lift the veil on what is thought to be Britain's biggest porn empire, and raise intriguing questions.

In the year to September 2002, trade debtors soared as the amount owed to Roldvale from its own subsidiaries rose £7.2m to £38.2m. Cash in hand fell 40% to £3.6m. The value of Sullivan's racing stable halved to £92,252.

Sullivan runs Roldvale from his £6m mock-baronial pile in Theydon Bois, Essex, which has been compared to a Bond villain's den. Built 11 years ago during the depths of the recession, it has 14 bedrooms, servants' quarters and an indoor pool and Jacuzzi below a gallery.

The diminutive tycoon, 53, made his money from the soft-core pornography business starting in the 1970s. He became better known for launching the Sport newspaper during the 1980s.

Modelled on US supermarket tabloids, it offered comical fake stories, including one about a World War Two bomber found on the moon.

He has struggled to be taken seriously. His attempt to buy mainstream Bristol United Press in 1990 was blocked on public interest grounds. Two years ago, he watched in frustration as industry rival Richard Desmond took control of Express Newspapers.

Birmingham City, where he has a controlling interest, lost £6.3m before tax last year and the Daily and Sunday Sport tabloids lost £5.9m.