iPhone 5C Japanese market?

fuzzgun19

I bought an iPhone 5C from smartfonestore.com. It is fine except when I mute the phone the camera noise doesn't mute. It's very annoying.

I've looked in the settings to see if there's an option to turn it off but can't see anything.

I looked on google to see if I could find a solution and saw some people have said it might be a phone made for the Japanese market and turning the shutter sound off is not permitted there.

Is there a way to find out if this is the case?
If so are they allowed to be sold in the U.K.?

fuzzgun19

Just an update on this, I returned the 5c and bought a 5s but that was the same. I then ordered another 5s but called and asked them to fully test it as I wanted the mute to work properly.

I waited for the second 5s but it didn't arrive. After about a week I called asking what was happening, they said they hadn't sent it as it was a Japanese handset too (so admitting they sell Japanese iPhones).

I ended up cancelling the order and got a refund, and returned the first 5s.

Ended up getting one from a company on eBay that has been fine - and was £25 cheaper than SFS.

This experience has put me off SFS somewhat, but would buy from the eBay seller again.