Chump change fine for 'Girls Gone Wild' Francis

By Stone Martindale Jan 23, 2007, 2:59 GMT

Francis told the press outside the courthouse he was being made "an example of" "It\'s my first tiiiiiime!!! he he he" © Chris Hatcher / Photorazzi

Joe Francis, the auteur of nattering, nubile nimrods frolicking topless in "Girls Gone Wild" videos was fined $500,000 on Monday for violating rules against the exploitation of minors.

Joe Francis, 33, similar to his rich pal Paris Hilton, was assigned 200 hours of community service and was placed on two years' probation as part of a plea agreement he reached with the Justice Department last September.

In pleading guilty to the felonious counts, "Francis admitted he knowingly included footage of two females in his "Ultimate Spring Break" video series without having legible documentation of their ages, as required by law," reported Reuters.

Francis' lawyer, Aaron Dyer, wrote the offences off to bad bookkeping

Not buying that argument, Prosecutor Brent Ward told the judge that Francis had honed the inebriated babe luring skills of his field production team "with little or no regard for their age, and without any regard for record-keeping" requirements, reported Reuters.