Carpet cleaner in sting pleads guilty

TV3

CHARGED: A carpet cleaner featured on the TV show Target has been charged with committing an indecent act at a customer's house.

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A tradesman caught in a Target TV show sting committing an indecent act at a customer's house has admitted his guilt.

The carpet cleaner, who has name suppression, pleaded guilty in the Manukau District Court on Thursday to charges of burglary and wilfully accessing a computer without authority.

He will be sentenced in September.

In an episode of the TV3 consumer show, which screened in May, Target employed a carpet cleaning firm to clean a filthy lounge floor and a red wine stain in the master bedroom as part of its weekly hidden camera trial.

Target's footage allegedly showed the man going through the homeowner's chest of drawers before examining her laundry basket and sniffing several items of clothing.

He is then seen apparently collecting a perfume bottle which he takes to the master bedroom and sprays on a pair of underwear.

He then appears to turn on the household computer and views pornography while masturbating into the underwear.

The man later seems to delete the internet browsing history and returns the underwear to the laundry basket, before completing the carpet job and leaving.

Target did not name the company involved and the cleaner was fired.

- © Fairfax NZ News