Target sting carpet cleaner pleads guilty

The carpet cleaner caught by Target. Photo / Supplied.

Correction

This article, published on July 21, wrongly carried a headline which stated the cleaner sentenced worked for Rug Doctor. Nzherald.co.nz accepts it was wrong; Rug Doctor is in no way affiliated with the carpet cleaner or company relating to the person in this article. Rug Doctor is a do-it-yourself carpet cleaning company which hires out machines and does not visit personal homes. Nzherald.co.nz apologises for the error.

An Auckland carpet cleaner caught in a Target TV sting has pleaded guilty to charges over the incident, recorded on hidden cameras.

The tradesman, who has name suppression, will be sentenced in September after pleading guilty in Manukau District Court on Thursday to burglary and wilfully accessing a computer.

Last night, a woman at the man's house said he would not comment.

"He's not interested. We don't talk to reporters and that's it," she said.

The man was caught by hidden cameras set up by TV3's Target programme.

The film shows him appearing to rifle through the drawers of a Target actress posing as a customer after he was called to her house to clean her carpets.

He appeared to look at her photos and repeatedly touch and sniff underwear he found in her laundry basket.

In scenes broadcast on national television in May, the man was seen walking from room to room, taking soap from the bathroom, and looking at more personal items in a spare room before turning on the computer in the living room and connecting to the internet.

"The behaviour you're about to see is so extreme, so unprofessional, we're screening it as a cautionary tale, firstly, for home owners and, secondly, the tradespeople who think they can behave like this in clients' homes when they aren't there," host Carly Flynn said at the time.

The footage showed the man kneeling in front of the computer.

The film was later handed over to the police, and the man lost his job.

Target producer Simon Roy said last night that the programme was "satisfied that the correct legal procedures are being followed through".

The man's employer, who has also not been named, previously said: "Needless to say I'm disgusted and shocked at the uncouth antics of the person caught on tape.

"He fully deserves to be exposed for what he did while placed in a position of trust."

The film of the carpet cleaner attracted nearly 150,000 views online after it aired.