We find hidden cameras, listening devices, car trackers & more
Man Using Hidden Cameras Caught
A man 
who hacked into home security cameras to spy on unsuspecting homeowners also used a hidden camera to film families in Butlins, Swindon Crown Court heard.
Sentencing John Wood, 42, to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Peter Crabtree labelled the man’s crimes a “systematic campaign of voyeurism over a period of six years”.
Prosecutor Russell Pyne told the court Wood had been snared by the south west regional organised crime squad’s cyber unit during a joint investigation with the FBI into super-hacker Colton Grubbs, whose software LuminosityLink allowed users to secretly activate cameras and microphones to secretly record people in their own homes.
If you feel your privacy is being intruded and want to know if there is anything hidden in your home, office or vehicle, contact us today for a free no obligation quote. We offer impartial professional advice.
Call us 07816 477496 - Email us enquiries@bugsweepinguk.co.uk
Detectives discovered that dad-of-one Wood had bought the software in July 2015, although there was no evidence he had used it.
But when officers analysed Wood’s computers they found a huge cache of secret video recordings he’d made between 2011 and 2016.
He had also hacked into people’s private webcams and other camera-enabled devices to secretly watching them in their own homes. A programme, Blue Iris, more commonly used to organise CCTV feeds, had been used so he could monitor different illicitly-accessed cameras. There were 1,400 video files saved in a file named “Blue Iris Videos”, the majority of which showed people having sex at home. Videos linked to 45 different IP addresses had been uncovered.
One of his victims, a London man whose home security camera was accessed by Wood, said in an impact statement: “It made me feel vulnerable and violated that the sanctity of our home has been accessed.”
Wood also had almost 300 videos that he had shot himself. He used a camera to film women from windows in his home, devices hidden in his house and at a holiday cottage and took a hidden camera to Butlins, Bognor Regis, in November 2012, to film women in changing rooms.
One of his victims, who had been filmed using the toilet in Wood’s own home, said in a victim statement that she was “absolutely shocked and disgusted that he’d deliberately made recordings of me behind closed doors”.
Another woman said: “The truth is it’s frustrating to think there are people out there that do things like this.”
The 77 videos shot over five days at Butlins showed over 167 victims - including children, although no indecent material was found on Wood's computer. None of the victims had been identified by police.
Wood, formerly of Station Road, Minety, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to six counts of voyeurism and two charges under the Computer Misuse Act.
If you feel your privacy is being intruded and want to know if there is anything hidden in your home, office or vehicle, contact us today for a free no obligation quote. We offer impartial professional advice.
Call us 07816 477496 - Email us enquiries@bugsweepinguk.co.uk