A Polish peeping Tom will have to sign the sex offenders register for seven years after admitting spying on his housemates in the shower.

Grzegorz Zdyb, 34, a carpenter, admitted a charge of voyeurism at Isleworth Crown Court and was handed a three-month sentence, although he has already served this on remand.

Zdyb, who has been in the country for nine years but still speaks little English, lived with three women and three men at a house in Rosemont Road, Acton.

Police were called in when one of them found the camera, which was connected to recording equipment in his room, while having a shower.

Prosecutor Tim Nail said: "One of the residents noticed a shiny area next to the shower and discovered it was the lens of a camera.

"Investigation revealed that it was connected to a wire which went outside the building and up to the attic occupied by the defendant".

Police were called to the house and "seized a webcam, computer discs, wires, SIM cards for mobile 'phones and memory cards for cameras," said counsel.

Mr Nail said Zdyb was away on holiday at the time but returned and gave himself up to police who seized digital cameras and video cameras from him, although, they found nothing connected to his spying activities, He said: "He fully and frankly admitted he had succumbed to temptation regarding the women who lived below him and had gone into the communal shower room and gone to considerable effort.

"He drilled a hole in the shower wall, put the camera in and threaded the lead up to his own room and connected it to the television.

"He realised what he was doing was wrong and claimed that in the six months operation, he had not seen anyone in the shower."

Zdyb's counsel, Richard Crabtree, said he had not been in any trouble before and readily admitted the offence, and that he worked very hard and used all his earnings for travel.

Jailing him Judge Patricia Dangor said the effect on his victims must have been "humiliation, embarrassment and disgust.

She said: "You did this for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.

"This was a pre-meditated act which took a considerable effort to install cameras, wires and connections to your television set.

"This was in a house you shared with others, including three females, who regarded you as a friend. This was a breach of that friendship and was an intrusion into their privacy".