A ‘PEEPING Tom’ who took videos of women using tanning booths at his long term partner’s salon has been convicted of two counts of voyeurism.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Michael Ainscough, 48, of Tonge Old Road, Tonge Fold, used a mobile phone to secretly take footage of clients at Sunnydaze Tanning Salon, in Lee Lane, Horwich.

Ainscough was also employed at the salon at the time.

The offences came to light following a complaint about Mr Ainscough’s behaviour in February last year.

Police attended the salon and were told there was no CCTV available, but the owner confirmed Ainscough was her partner and had been working there.

He was arrested the next day and his phone seized. Three videos were recovered and examined, despite having been taken in in July 2015 and deleted soon after.

The victims in the footage, which featured the women’s ankles and lower legs, have never been identified.

Ainscough, who works as a welder, originally suggested his grandson may have taken the footage on his mobile phone by mistake, but later pleaded guilty to the offences.

Kevin Liston, for Ainscough, said the footage was ‘not the most explicit’ and that there was no evidence Ainscough had distributed the images.

However he conceded this would be ‘small comfort’ to the unidentified victims and accepted there had been a breach of trust on Ainsworth’s part.

Sentencing Ainscough to a three-year community order, Judge Greame Smith said: “On the face of it they are relatively innocuous video footage clips which show the feet, ankles and lower legs of whichever female was in the cubicle at the time – the kind of thing you might see any day of the week in a swimming pool or a beach.”

“But it’s not innocuous because people had gone for a sun tan in what they believed was privacy, therefore there was something of a breach of trust.”

Ainscough must complete a Horizon accredited course and complete 30 days of rehabilitation.He must also sign the sex offenders register for five years.