CCTV has revolutionised store security, while self-service tills have ushered in a brave new world of scan-happy convenience.

But the two were combined in sinister fashion when a Swansea council worker took to filming female shoppers in his local Tesco.

Glen Gerald Elson used a false-bottomed carrier bag to shoot intimate ­footage of unsuspecting ­female shoppers over a nine-month period, Swansea Crown Court heard last week.

The presiding judge said the women Elson filmed were "blissfully unaware" of any intrusion. Although, as they were wandering the aisles of Tesco, it seems ­unlikely there was much in the way of bliss involved. And he surely didn't scrutinise them as thoroughly as Clubcard's data analysts.

Apparently Elson was ­ultimately detained after using one of the store's self-service tills. Judging by the recent furore over self-scan checkouts, surely that's precisely the sort of oddball behaviour you'd expect from someone like Elson.

Ironically, his bizarre and rather tragic spree which mustered him 80 separate films, according to Wales Online was brought to an end after he was spotted by security staff following his antics on CCTV.