A Bromley painter and decorator has been found guilty of exposure after he flashed a woman walking past his van.

Benjamin Davies exposed himself to the woman through the window of his motor on Southview Road in Bromley on July 16.

The 27-year-old, of Oxhawth Crescent, appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court for a two-hour trial on Friday (September 12), after pleading not guilty on August 5.

He denied intentionally flashing the woman and said he was using his smartphone to take a saucy photograph to send to his girlfriend.

The witness told the court she was walking along the road at around 5pm when she looked into the blue van and thought she saw Davies performing a sex act on himself.

She said she passed the van three times because Davies kept driving ahead of her and stopping to get her attention.

The woman said when she passed his van on the third occasion; she looked in through the window and saw his genitals in his hand.

She took a photo of his registration plate to hand to police and Davies then drove off.

She told the court: “Initially, I didn’t think I was seeing what I was seeing. It made me feel sick really that somebody would do that.

“Anybody could have seen it, it could have been the children across the street.”

But Davies denied stopping three times and said he had been parked at the end of Southview Road all along.

He told the court he had been driving to his girlfriend’s house when he decided to stop and take a “flirty” picture to send to her.

“Someone walked past and looked into my van when I was about to take the picture,” he told the court.

“I was in shock, I was embarrassed. I did my trousers back up and drove away from the road.”

Magistrates found Davies guilty of exposing his genitals with the intention of alarming or distressing someone.

He was released on bail and will be sentenced on September 18.