A jilted housewife hacked into the Netflix account of her former husband’s new girlfriend and changed the profile names to “Desperate home wrecker” and “The Skank”.
Sharen Pound, 33, embarked upon a day-long spree with the aim of “embarrassing and humiliating” Adele McGillivray in front of her new lover; Pound’s former husband.
Pound used a family Xbox account to log onto the streaming service used by Miss McGillivray and change the profile names and also used the web to order a string of unwanted services for her.
She prompted calls to be made to the victim, including one from a private cosmetic surgery hospital offering a nose job and another from a firm about installing a stairlift at her property.
Pound has subsequently been charged with computer hacking.
In a statement read in Stockport Magistrates and County Court, Miss McGillivray, from Buxton. Derbyshire, was said to be "distressed and annoyed" by the cyber attacks.
“These calls have caused me considerable amounts of concern,” she said.
"I thought my bank details were visible on my Netflix account and I was concerned the defendant could have accessed them.
"It made me suspicious that it was Sharen due to the names that the profiles were changed to. I just want this to stop and for her to leave me alone. I feel she is just jealous of my relationship. I feel I was targeted because of this."
Magistrates in Stockport heard the feud began in April this year after Pound, of Chapel en le Frith, broke up with her unnamed partner and he began dating Miss McGillivray.
Prosecutor Peter Conroy said: "The defendant and the victim’s partner were in a relationship that ended one year before this offence.
"The victim was later contacted to be told the defendant had admitted changing all of the Netflix profiles which had been set up by her partner. The profiles were changed to 'Desperate home wrecker' and 'The skank'.
"It seems the defendant was able to access the Netflix account through an Xbox account which was already signed in and she changed the usernames of the profiles.
"Later that night, the complainant received several phone calls and text messages from various companies from internet enquiries. These enquiries related to nose jobs from a private hospital in Manchester and enquiry about installing a stairlift at the property.”
Mr Conroy said this was the extent of the harassment, which all happened within the same day. Pound had no previous convictions, he pointed out, and was to be sentenced on the basis of her tampering with her Netflix profiles, the nose job and installing of a stairlift.
"There is some planning to give false details and a level of sophistication but the victim has been frank saying it has not caused her any significant distress. She declined the opportunity of a victim's personal statement - however, from her statement, it is quite clear she was distressed and annoyed."
Pound admitted harassment. A charge against her of securing unauthorised access to a computer programme under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 was dropped.
The defendant, who was currently receiving £1400 universal credit and £240 child benefit, has been banned from contacting Miss McGillivray, under the terms of a 12 month restraining order.
She has also been fined £80 and ordered to pay £119 in costs and surcharges.
Her lawyer, Anthony Derbyshire, said in mitigation: "She is embarrassed that she is here today. Her biggest loss is her good character. She did have no previous convictions.
"What we are dealing with are actions that took place on a single day. They were not over a prolonged period of time and there is no assertion she has behaved inappropriately in the intervening period. She does not seek to oppose a restraining order.”
Mr Derbyshire said Pound had “no desire or wish” to have any contact with the complainant, and accepted she was entirely in the wrong for what she did.
She was “remorseful” and now wanted to move forward, he said.
“In essence, there was a family games console and when Netflix turned on it had a list of users. All she did was enter different names on two of the users on screen. She cannot see any of the account details.
"She accepts she was completely wrong in doing this. This was very short lived and it was some time ago.”
