A peeping Tom spied on a man using the urinal in a busy public toilet using his mobile phone as he hid in the cubicle.
Perverted pensioner David Jones claimed he had been taken unwell as he browsed art magazines in WHSmith and rushed to the toilets in the St George’s Centre, Preston, to be sick.
But as the retired banker hid in a cubicle another man, Curtis Wallis, spotted a mobile phone emerging from the top of the door and warned a man who was using the urinal he was being watched.
Mr Wallis then kicked at the door, swearing at the pensioner, while the other man went to alert security.
Jones then left the cubicle but as he was confronted by the men, produced a mobile phone from his pocket, claiming he wanted to phone his wife.
The victim said: “I told security to get the phone off the man because he would be deleting everything.”
The police were called and when Jones was arrested on suspicion of voyeurism, he was found to have a black hand mirror and a mobile phone in his pocket.
Preston magistrates found Jones, 68, of Dorset Avenue, Walton-le-Dale, guilty of voyeurism following a trial at the city’s magistrates court.
During the trial, Jones, who suffers a number of health conditions, claimed Mr Wallis had been mistaken and that he had in fact seen him picking up his glasses case, which he had dropped as he rushed into the cubicle to be sick.
He also told magistrates he had hung his jacket over a large gap in the cubicle door to protect his own privacy.
Security supervisor David Jackson, pictured right, said since the incident on June 27 last year, metal strips had been fitted around the doors in the toilets to fill holes and gaps.
After hearing the evidence and visiting the toilets on the top floor of the shopping centre, the bench concluded the accounts of Mr Wallis and the victim were entirely plausible and consistent and that Jones had been spying on men at the urinal. Jones was fined £135 and ordered to pay £770 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Speaking after the trial his victim, who can not be named for legal reasons, told the Evening Post: “I think it should have been a more severe sentence for something like this.
“He did this for his own gratification.
“At the time I could not believe what was happening. There is no idea how long he had been in there.
“I didn’t have a clue – it is as well Curtis spotted it.
“Security were there in seconds. It was all really well handled.”
Mr Wallis added: “The whole situation was surreal. I was shocked.
“A fine doesn’t really seem enough.”
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