(((A cop on sick leave, a young ex-cop, some hackers and a few private zillionaires to grease the proceedings. I bet they would have gotten away clean with this if they'd had the good sense to work for Wal-Mart Intelligence instead of some rich-kid aristocrat.)))
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=OL2536668G&news_headline=oil_boss_snooped_on_fashion_boss_wife
Ms Moore said: "Mr Mellon employed the services of AIS to snoop on his wife Tamara during divorce proceedings because he wanted information that he wasn't getting through the court process.
"So he thought it would be a good idea to snoop on her. It wasn't by tapping into her telephone, it was by trying to hack into her emails."
The court was told the firm was set up by police officer Jeremy Young.
He was a serving officer in the Metropolitan police but had been off sick, "but that did not stop him going to this agency and working there on a day to day basis".
He was joined in the venture by his friend and former Stoke Newington colleague Scott Gelsthorpe, 32. The pair were also joined by 58 year-old David Carroll and the agency had a base in Smithfield, London.
Ms Moore QC told the jury the agency carried out the usual "bog standard" work in providing information and tracing people.
But it allegedly "had a number of very lucrative sidelines and this involved hacking and arranging to hack into people's computers and bugging people's phones, both of which are not legal in this country." (((Though, given the prevalence of British espionage services, it's not like they never happen. Can you imagine James Bond being sent up for wiretapping? Me neither.)))
The court heard a hacker in the United States would remotely place a "Trojan device" into a computer by sending an email to the target.
The email would be "interesting" so the recipient would open it, which then allowed the monitoring of "every keystroke" of the target's computer use.
As well as personal information, bank details could be acquired for the benefit of the paying client.
Mr Moore QC continued: "Tamara Mellon was sent an email which purported to show what her husband was up to. Of course if she was interested in that, she would open the email, especially if going through an acrimonious divorce."
The court heard that a Trojan "completely compromised" the security of any computer and "to a small extent the general workings of it".
Ms Moore QC added: "These people agreed to hack into the computer of Mrs Mellon and various other people, and they wanted to go on without them knowing."
Mellon, of Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, denies one count of conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computer material between July 1, 2004 and February 4, 2005.
At previous hearings agency boss Jeremy Young admitted 15 various counts of conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computer material, conspiracy to intercept communications unlawfully, conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to cause criminal damage to property.
Gelthorpe, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, and David Carroll, of Highgate, north London, each deny seven counts of conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computer material between December 1999 and February 2005.
They also deny six counts of conspiracy to intercept communications unlawfully between October 2000 and September 2004.
They also deny one count of conspiracy to defraud between December 1999 and September 2004, and conspiracy to cause criminal damage to property between December 1999 and September 2004.
David Carroll's son Daniel, a 36 year-old computer expert from Westminster, London, denies three counts of conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computer material between December 1999 and February 2005.
Maurice Kennedy, 58, of Barnet, north London, denies one count of conspiracy to intercept communications unlawfully between March 2004 and September 2004.
The case continues.
Mellon:
