Ex-husband Charged For Spying On Tycoon Wife’s PC

Ex-husband of Tamara Mellon, Jimmy Choo brand of shoes' co-founder, hired an expert hacker to monitor his wife's private emails, as per the hearing of a court.

As per prosecution lawyers, Mellon had employed "Hackers Are Us" division of Active Investigation Services (AIS), since he was very anxious whether she would divulge some of his unlawful secret revenue sources to the media.

On April 25, 2007, the Southwark Crown Court was informed that Ms. Mellon, the 37 year old creator of the £200m fashion empire, was dispatched emails claiming to hold particulars about her husband's doings. It was purported that they actually contained a " Trojan horse" that could snoop on her PC, recording "each keystroke." The software could decipher login passwords, permitting the firm to retrieve personal emails and bank accounts.

Ms. Mellon was next e-mailed "allegedly informing her about her husband's exploits", alleged Miranda Moore, representing the prosecution, THE INDEPENDENT reported on April 26, 2007. "And, certainly, out of curiosity she would open the email, especially as she was undergoing a bitter divorce."

AIS was operated by 32-year-old former policeman Scott Gelsthorpe and his ex-associate Jeremy Young. The jury was informed that Mr. Young, 38, who had confessed to a series of conspiracies regarding the lawsuit, was the attending officer during these cyber crimes, though on a long sick leave.

Furthermore, the jurors were informed that the firm billed £5,000-£7,000 to infiltrate a PC, £2,000 to access banking data and £6,000 to intercept phones.

The Police, to supervise the actions of AIS, finally introduced a secret vigil operation, codenamed Barbatus, which led to the detention of 30 persons.

Mellon and his gang have been charged with 15 counts of conspiracy affirming fraudulence, illegal alteration of computer data, unauthorized seizure of computer data, and criminal harm.

Mr. Mellon repudiates plotting to affect unlawful change of computer data. He attended court along with Scott Gelsthorpe, 32, the AIS honcho, David Carroll, 59, an AIS worker and his 37 year old, computer specialist son, Daniel. A client, Maurice Kennedy, 58, was also charged with helping the detective agency's criminal activities. They all renounced the allegations.

Related article: Ex-employee Pleads Guilty to Hacking & Sabotage

» SPAMfighter News - 5/3/2007