A TYCOON from Hasle-mere was jailed for six months on Wednesday for hiring a crooked detective agency to spy on his business enemies. Adrian Kirby, 48, paid the law-breaking snooping service to tap the phones of an Environment Agency officer who was investigating alleged illegal dumping by his waste firm. The father of three, who became number 751 on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2005, has an estimated worth of up to £65 million after selling the company, Atlantic Waste. Kirby, who paid £47,000 for the service, was one of eight men sentenced on Wednesday after admitting either using or working for the detective agency. The London-based agency made hundreds of thousands of pounds by offering illicit services to a string of clients. Run by a former police officer, the company thought nothing of hacking into computers, tapping private landlines and raiding medical records. It employed specialist hackers with expertise in phones and computers while its bosses boasted "more than 40 years of top police expertise between us". The group of private eyes, serving officers and retired detectives tapped and hacked into computers over a five-year period between 1999 and 2004. Charges ranged from £3,000 to bug a target's telephone to £5,000 to hack into their computer. There were also charges for obtaining medical records and private banking information. Miranda Moore, QC, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court: "There is no doubt the detective agency's office was run on a backbone of dishonesty. "When out on surveillance, fake disabled parking stickers were used on agency vehicles. False registration numbers were also used, and lies about the officers were concocted on the company documentation. "They also claimed that they had been specialist undercover policeman, when in fact they had worked as police constables and no more." The court heard how the service catered for a wide range of clients with a wide range of requests. These ranged from someone investigating the beneficiary of a will left by an elderly relative, through to bathroom company boss Anthony Waters, who, along with son Duncan, used them to spy on his estranged wife. Miss Moore said the agency's downfall came when it was discovered that a serving officer, supposedly off with depression, was working for it full-time. "From that initial inquiry, matters turned to British Telecom, who by 2003 had become aware that throughout the UK they were finding a number of local intercepts on landlines which shared common features," said Ms Moore.' She said they included various hi-tech monitoring devices in the familiar green roadside telephone junction boxes. To discover the culprits, tiny cameras were installed in the cabinets and fitted to nearby telegraph poles. It did not take long for Michael Hall, a telecoms expert employed by the agency, to be identified. Hall, 35, and Stuart Dowling, 30, were both phone specialists who dressed up in BT uniforms to install phone bugs up and down the country. Kirby confessed to hiring the agency to spy on an officer from the environment department at Ramsey and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. He also asked the private detectives to bug a former site manager of the firm in case he intended to help with the investigation. John Kelsey-Fry, QC, defending Kirby, said the multi-millionaire was encouraged by crooked detectives to use the phone-tapping service. The detective agency exaggerated the concerns of its client, Mr Kirby. He told the court: "He was paranoid and and under the misguided impression at the time that people were out to get him. "His landfill site had provoked a public uproar and had been the subject of break- ins and arson attacks. "We are not suggesting anything illegal was going on in the way the council was acting, but my client was under that impression at the time.' Judge Paul Dodgson told the eight defendants: "Sentences for serious offences such as these must carry a deterrent for others. "There has been a suggestion in interview that the activities you were involved in was normal business practice and therefore you should be punished in a way that acknowledges that. "The court is not prepared to accept that. Such conduct is an attack on the privacy of individuals and commerce - it is not normal business practice. "It is a criminal intrusion on the right to privacy, privacy guarded throughout our society." He told Kirby he had paid the agency a substantial amount of money to hack into computers and tap telephone lines. "I do not accept that there was not commercial motivation for what you did. "The obvious step would have been to involve the police had your actions been for justifiable reasons."  Kirby, of Tennysons Lane, Haslemere, was jailed for six months, ordered to pay £2,173 compensation to BT and £6,500 in court costs after admitting illegally intercepting communications and making unauthorised modifications to computers. Adam Share, 35, of Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, who was employed by Kirby, was given a three-month sentence for his part in the scam after admitting the same charges. He was ordered to pay the same amount in compensation and court costs. Anthony Waters, 65, of Mougins, France, was jailed for four months, having pleaded guilty to the same charges. His son Duncan, 38, of Horstead, West Sussex, who admitted the same two charges Continued on page 3.