A serving MPS officer has been charged with a number of voyeurism offences.

Pretending to be a pilot, Det Insp Neil Corbel arranged fake photoshoots in hotel rooms, flats and Airbnbs.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard he hid devices in tissue boxes, phone chargers, an air freshener and glasses to video his victims.

He was caught after a woman became suspicious of a digital clock and found it was a spy camera.

In 2019, model Lizzie booked onto a four-hour shoot with an amateur photographer. “An hour in, I felt strange,” she said. “About halfway through the shoot, I noticed an alarm clock which had a different time. He [the photographer] saw me look at it and said, ‘Oh, it’s an odd clock because there’s a different time on it’.”

Feeling suspicious, Lizzie went to the bathroom, Googled the brand of clock and was shocked to discover that it was a covert video camera. “I felt really angry and sad, because I thought that if I let on that I knew, he would freak out,” she continued. “I had visions of him clobbering me over the head as I left. Then I had to endure two more hours [of the shoot]. He kept trying to get explicit images of me that I hadn’t consented to and he kept positioning me in front of the clock.”

Detective Inspector Neil Corbel, 40, from Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty in court to all with 19 counts of voyeurism within the Greater London, Manchester and Brighton areas.

The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed. DI Corbel is currently suspended from duty.

Det Chief Supt Barnett added: “I am disappointed in the actions of the officer which are not representative of the standards we expect. I am saddened by the pain and hurt that he has caused.”

Det Insp Corbel, is due back in court for sentencing on October 4, was not on duty at the time of the crimes.

Police found images of some 51 women on Corbel’s hard drive and were able to identify 19 victims willing to make statements against him.

The offences, which were said to not be linked to his work as a police officer, took place across the London, Manchester and Brighton areas between January 2017 and February 2020.

Prosecutor Babatunde Alabi said none of the women – apart from one – had agreed to be videoed. The one that had consented, had said no intimate parts were to be filmed. She did not realise there were other hidden cameras in the room.

He told the court the victims included escorts, who had agreed to have sex with Corbel but not to be filmed, while two of the models had a relationship with the officer.

“He set up the rooms well in advance with covert devices planted in strategic places capturing the women while they were undressing before the shoots,” said the prosecutor.

“What is obvious from watching the videos is that from time to time he would manoeuvre the models so that open-leg photos and open-leg videos were obtained.

He added: “There was one model who agreed to being videoed but insisted to the defendant there were going to be no open-leg videos.

“She of course didn’t realised there were other overt devices hidden around the room.”