Hacker's kit 'used for bugging'

Coulson admitted involvement in the phone surveillance offences

An electronics expert made telephone tapping devices which were used in unlawful surveillance, a court heard.

Dean Coulson's kits were operated by a crooked detective agency headed by a rogue police officer.

Coulson, 42, from Romford, admitted "possessing apparatus for dishonestly obtaining a communications service" and was jailed for four months.

He was the last accused to be convicted in a series of corruption cases lasting more than a year.

Dean Coulson's hi-tech home-made devices eventually ended up in the hands of Active Investigation Services (AIS), a City-based company headed by a rogue Metropolitan police officer, Southwark Crown Court heard.

They were then used to listen in to conversations of those targeted on the orders of the agency's clients.

The public should be aware when they use a private detective agency they can be held accountable for criminal acts committed on their behalf Det Insp Kevin Hyland

Apart from spying on spouses the company helped snoop on another client's business rival, and was paid by a waste disposal operation to undermine opposition over alleged planning breaches.

Coulson was one of 23 people arrested during a police investigation.

Fifteen of his co-defendants were subsequently jailed, with the longest term of 27 months going to Jeremy Young, the police constable who ran the detective agency when on long-term sick leave.

Outside court Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland said: "Today's sentence, the last in a long series of court cases over more than a year, highlights the Met police's drive to target corruption.

"The public should be aware that when they use the services of a private detective agency they can also be held accountable for any criminal acts committed on their behalf."