Man jailed for hacking into women's online accounts
A Shropshire man has been jailed after it was discovered he was hacking into women's online accounts.
Adam Piggott, of Lime Street in Shrewsbury, was given a 32-month sentence at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday, 15 May, after pleading guilty to 12 counts of causing a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorised access to a program/data, and one charge of attempting to cause a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorised access to a program/data.
During the hearing the court was told how the 36-year-old had already been given a suspended sentence for a similar offence in January 2025. As part of Piggott's sentence at the time he was also given a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), which meant officers could regularly check his devices.
In August 2025 as part of the court order, the force's Cyber Crime Unit were checking his devices and identified new victims on his phone. They also found he had been signing in to email accounts belonging to other people.
Piggott was arrested and all his devices were seized. When officers reviewed his devices they discovered further evidence that Piggott had also managed to gain access to victim's social media, and online shopping accounts. He was then released on bail pending further enquires.
In March 2026 more evidence came to light and Piggott was subsequently arrested and charged.
The court was told that no evidence was found that showed Piggott's actions were sexually motivated.
As Piggott had triggered his suspended sentence the judge handed him a 32-month custodial sentence, as well as a five-year CBO. The CBO means that he must hand over any digital device he has access to immediately for examination upon police request.
Detective Constable Martyn Short, from the Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Piggott repeatedly chose to violate the privacy of women, despite already being given opportunities to change his behaviour. His actions caused significant distress to his victims, and this sentence reflects the seriousness of his offending.
"Our team worked tirelessly to uncover the full extent of his activity, and this case shows how determined we are to protect the public from those who misuse technology to target others. We will never fully understand why Piggott carried out this type of offending, however, we have no evidence to suggest it was sexually motivated.
"We hope this outcome provides reassurance to the victims and sends a clear message that online offending will be thoroughly investigated and robustly dealt with.”
