A wind farm tycoon was caught with indecent images of children after he asked a computer repair shop to wipe his hard drives.
Alexander Hensher, 48, the company director of a renewables business, told the member of staff at the shop in Bournemouth, Dorset, that he was being investigated by police.
But the employee he approached was in fact a police special constable, who contacted his superiors so Hensher's hard drives could be seized and analysed.
They were found to contain one Category A image, one Category B image and two Category C images.
Hensher, a father of three who lives in a £2million townhouse in Chelsea, appeared at Weymouth Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child.
The court heard he went into Bites in Bournemouth in October 2024 to seek help with wiping his three hard drives.
Susan Fellows, prosecuting, said: 'Mr Hensher attended a computer shop in Bournemouth on October 10, 2024 and he produced three hard drives and a phone to the member of staff and paid for them to be wiped.
'During the exchange with that member of staff, he mentioned he had been recently arrested for a sexual offence and made enquiries about whether police could hack devices remotely.
Alexander Hensher, 48, outside Weymouth Magistrates' Court where he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child
'The member of staff was a serving special constable.
'He shared his concerns with his police hierarchy and shortly afterwards police seized the devices from Mr Hensher and examined them.
'He had one Category A image of a child, one Category B image and two Category C images.
'An aggravating factor in this case is that he made very clear attempts to dispose of or wipe devices prior to police seizure.'
Rod Hayler, defending, said it was a limited number of images and there was no evidence that Hensher had recently accessed them.
He told the court that Hensher believes he had not looked at them for 15 to 20 years.
He said his client 'panicked' and made a 'foolish and naive decision' when he was arrested for an unrelated sexual offence, which led to no further police action.
He added that his client had taken steps to address his offending, which included seeing a renowned psycho-sexual therapist.
Mr Hayler said: 'The small number of images is a relevant factor as it is in contrast to many, if not most, cases which become before the criminal courts today which involve tens, hundreds or even thousands of images.
'The images were located on two hard drives and there is no evidence to suggest they had been recently used or accessed.
Hensher, wearing a suit and silver tie for his court appearance, is a father of three
'Mr Hensher said he can't be certain but he believes it may have been 15 to 20 years (ago that he accessed them) before he went into the computer shop.
'That doesn't excuse the offending or make it any less serious but it doesn't suggest it was a frequent or ongoing activity, it was not something he was returning to again and again.
'Mr Hensher had a reliance initially on online pornography of an adult and lawful nature, which descended into something unlawful for a short period of time.
'He was arrested for an unrelated matter which was not proceeded with, and that left him in a panic that he was still in possession of unlawful material on his hard drives.
'He took the foolish and naive decision to take them into a local computer shop to have them wiped.'
The court heard a probation officer's report which stated Hensher, of previous good character, was at low risk of reoffending.
Magistrates gave Hensher a 12 month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and issued a five year sexual harm prevention order.
Hensher, of West London, who is listed as company director of Lakeside Land Limited, was also fined £199 and his hard drives will be destroyed.
Magistrate chair Louise Dutton said: 'These offences are serious enough for us to make a community order for 12 months.'
Hensher has been a wind farm developer for more than 20 years. He founded A7 Energy in 2004 to develop small to medium sized sites in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The Greendykeside site became operational in 2007, generating electricity for approximately 2,200 homes.
In 2008, Sainsbury's signed a ten year agreement with his A7 Lochhead development in South Lanarkshire to provide enough wind-generated energy to power four of their supermarkets.
Hensher established Energy G Limited in 2013, which is based in Poole, Dorset.