Stephen Bear gained £22,300 (€27,515) profit from his OnlyFans revenge pornography video, a court heard.
The 34-year-old walked out of prison on January 14th, having served 10 and a half months for sharing a private film of him having sex with his ex-girlfriend, The Only Way Is Essex star Georgia Harrison, on the website.
The winner of Celebrity Big Brother 2016 was jailed on March 3rd last year after being found guilty of voyeurism and of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.
At Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, Bear was found to have profited £22,305.46 from the CCTV footage of the two having sex in a garden on August 2nd, 2020.
At the time, Bear was posing as “a billionaire” on his Twitter and YouTube accounts but was “in fact heavily overdrawn”, Essex Police financial investigator Laura Mackenzie told the court.
Prosecutor Andrew Bousfield added “despite pretending to be a billionaire, his most valuable asset at the time was selling sexual videos”.
His main asset at the time was £60,000 in owning his house, the court heard.
His OnlyFans subscriber count was said to have jumped 43 per cent as a result of the video, from 1,061 when it was uploaded on November 8 2020 to 1,883 by the time his OnlyFans account was de-activated on December 8.
The footage was available to subscribers behind a 9.99 dollar (£7.84) paywall on his profile ‘@hollywoodbear’.
There was said to have been a “jump up” in the 9.99 dollar purchases when the footage started “go viral” and Ms Harrison became aware of it.
A total of 273 subscribers purchased the video and, following the standard 20% cut to OnlyFans, this earned him £1,650.98, the court heard.
After the video was posted he adjusted his subscription fee, from a range of 7.50 dollars (£5.89) to 50 dollars (£39.28).
Through extra subscribers drawn in by the video, he was found to have earned £15,440.28, on top of the £1,650.98 earned through the paywall, Ms Mackenzie told the court.
Calculations on how much Bear earned from the video were debated during the hearing, and the judge noted that this was troubled by the convicted sex offender refusing take the stand and provide evidence.
Judge Christopher Morgan accepted Ms Mackenzie’s valuation of his profits, and acknowledged it was difficult to deduce precisely what each new subscriber sought when they joined his account after the video’s release.
He said: “He had, by the time the account had been set up, filmed himself and Georgia Harrison, that material being the subject of the criminal charges that he faced.
“The defendant plainly intended that that material would be placed onto his OnlyFans account.”
The court has not been able to contact Ms Harrison because she is currently in South Africa on this year’s Love Island: All Stars, where former contests return to the show.
The hearing has been adjourned to March 4 after the show has finished.
The OnlyFans hearing moved immediately into a second case regarding a fence around Bear’s property that Epping Forest District Council claims is too tall.
It was reiterated that Bear is unemployed and has no immediate prospects of getting a job.
His defence barrister in the second hearing said: “He doesn’t have a car to his name – we ask for a modest financial penalty, there seems to be little purpose in hammering him with significant financial penalty.
“As of today, there isn’t employment, and there isn’t a guaranteed contract (of employment), but certainly the impression is that he’s dedicated to making a lawful professional career.”
Judge Morgan acknowledged that he had “no certain or paid employment” at present, but was satisfied Bear could pay the money.
He was ordered to pay a £500 fine and £4,707.05 in costs in 56 days, and could face a seven-day prison sentence if he fails to pay the fine.
