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A SLEAZY mobile phone salesman used a secret camera to spy on a woman in a shop loo - but blundered by filming himself as he set it up.

Ross Hardie recorded a 20-year-old victim during two visits to the customer toilets with the James Bond-style miniature cam.

But he claimed he'd just been testing it out because he was interested in being a spy.

He hid the 5cm-long camera in a bundle of discarded toilet paper.

After filming "graphic" footage of the unsuspecting woman, he popped in to the toilet to adjust the angle of the camera before her second visit.

However, hapless Hardie, 22, was rumbled when she spotted the camera and confronted him with it.

He was unable to deny being responsible, as it had also recorded his face as he set the camera up.

Hardie told Perth Sheriff Court that he had spent £34 buying the device on the internet.

He claimed: "I like gadgets and things like that. I placed it in the toilet, but not to spy on anyone in particular.

"I was testing it out. I wanted to put it somewhere discreet to see if it would work and to spy.

"I put it in the toilet which was the most stupid place. I didn't want to put it anywhere else in case I got caught.

"I was going to take it home with me and just watch it. Nothing else. I just wanted to see how the camera worked.

"I like to buy gadgets. It just said it was a mini-camera and I thought I would hide it somewhere.

"On the day I did it, I was scared of how much trouble I could get into. I panicked and went back but it was found." Hardie denied that he planned to get "sexual gratification" from watching the footage of the woman's toilet visits.

He said: "It is not a nice thing to invade somebody's private space. It's terrible. I'm extremely sorry. I could understand it would really hurt somebody."

The court was told that Hardie had lost his job in Perth with phone firm O2 as a result of his arrest for making indecent images.

Sheriff Michael Fletcher rejected his denial that the offence was sexually motivated and placed Hardie on the sex offenders' register.

The sheriff said: "The camera caught pretty graphic images. It's the sort of image you wouldn't even have seen if you had been standing in the toilet beside her.

"You had to put the camera in a pretty unusual position."

He said Hardie's explanation that he was simply a geek who had interest in the world of subterfuge was ludicrous.

Sheriff Fletcher added: "I am afraid I regard his explanation as wholly unlikely.

"It is so far away from reality that it is impossible to accept."

Sentencing was deferred until October for reports.

Sunday Email reporters@sundaymail.co.uk