A chef who installed a hidden camera to film naked women and a man staying at his home in south-eastern NSW has been ordered to perform 350 hours community service work.
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Qi Jia Wu rented out two rooms to Taiwanese nationals, a man and three women, who were involved in the berry harvest at Tumbarumba and had arrived on December 15 last year, Albury Local Court heard yesterday.
He got abundant footage of the overseas travellers undressing, showering and visiting the toilet in a shared bathroom-laundry, the Border Mail reports.
But his covert perving was discovered when the male visitor borrowed Wu’s computer and found an item titled “new file”.
He played the file, which showed the four being secretly filmed in the bathroom.
The man checked the room and found a clock-radio attached to the bathroom sink and a closer look revealed a pin-hole video camera.
“That is a very large number of [community service] hours, but these are serious matters,” magistrate Tony Murray told Wu .
“This behaviour is unacceptable.
“People are entitled to their privacy.”
Wu, 37, appeared for sentencing on four counts of filming a person in a private act without consent and installing a device to observe or film someone.
Defence solicitor Andrea MacDonald said Wu was estranged from his family, who still live in Tumbarumba, and had relocated to Gundagai.
Wu's footage was put on a USB file and the group took it to police at Tumbarumba on January 10.
Police subsequently discovered the recording device and seized Wu’s computer.
When police went to Wu’s home, he was absent, but they activated the video camera and found his laptop computer.
It was viewed in the presence of the four victims with six new folder files found which contained 348 movie files of three minutes duration.
“I note the offences took place when the defendant occupied a position of trust,” Mr Murray said.
“It would appear he has already paid a high price for the behaviour.”
