Store owner detained for selling illegal spy device

An electronics store owner has been sentenced to five months of detention for selling illegal spying gear, Huangpu District People's Court said Thursday.

The defendant, surnamed Chen, owned a store in an electronics market on Beijing Road East, where he sold electronic monitoring equipment, according to a court press release.

Among his wares, Chen sold a device called an MMS alarm. The device, which contains a camera and a SIM card, can send the images it takes to a designated mobile phone.

National security authorities consider the devices illegal surveillance equipment.

Chen bought the devices online. Despite a warning from the market's administrators in October that the devices were illegal, Chen kept them on sale.

Police discovered Chen was selling the devices during a routine inspection. They confiscated five MMS alarms at his store.

The court gave Chen a lenient sentence because he hadn't yet sold any of the devices.