Driving instructor hacks student accounts under the pretext of "I'll send you parking videos"

Photos, Videos, and Contact Info Extracted from 25 Students' Online Accounts
Court: "Crime Committed by Exploiting Trust of Multiple Victims... Serious Offense"
Criminal History Includes Illegally Filming Victims with Hidden Cameras in Motel Bathrooms

Gwangju District Court building.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] A driving school instructor who accessed students' online accounts to obtain and distribute private videos has been sentenced to three years in prison.

On the 20th, the Criminal Division 13 of the Gwangju District Court (Chief Judge Shim Jaehyun) sentenced A (28), who was tried for violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (threatening to use filmed materials) and other charges, to three years in prison. In addition, A was ordered to complete a 40-hour sexual violence treatment program and was banned from working in institutions related to children, adolescents, and persons with disabilities for five years.

A was indicted for secretly accessing the online accounts of 25 students while working as a driving school instructor from February last year to June this year, stealing private videos, and distributing them. A used the method of asking students to "log in to their phone accounts to receive large parking practice videos," thereby obtaining students' IDs and passwords, and then extracted photos, videos, and contact information from their accounts. Subsequently, A sent videos showing the students' bodies and obscene photos he possessed to acquaintances of the students. A also captured screenshots of messages sent to victims' acquaintances threatening to sell the videos and sent them back to the victims as a form of intimidation. Furthermore, A committed another crime in 2018 by secretly installing a hidden camera in a motel bathroom in Jeonnam and illegally filming a victim while she was showering.

The court stated, "A, as a driving instructor, exploited the trust of multiple victims by using the obtained IDs and passwords to infiltrate cloud systems, invading the victims' privacy and recklessly providing sexually humiliating filmed materials to others." The court added, "In addition, A secretly took nude photos of a woman he was dating and provided them to her acquaintances, showing extremely poor criminal character." The court explained, "The sentence was determined considering that A reached settlements with four of the victims."

Last year, there was also a case where a driving instructor was punished for violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. B, a man in his 30s who worked in the Seoul area for four years, installed small cameras under the driver's seat and elsewhere in his car to illegally film female students who received driving lessons from him. B filmed women's bare legs and underwear using this method, with hundreds of victims. B also shared the filmed videos with acquaintances. Until his arrest, B was known as a "kind and good instructor," and some of the victims were reportedly celebrities. B's criminal activities were uncovered when his partner found traces of camera installation in the vehicle and reported it. Subsequently, B was sentenced to two years and six months in prison in both the first trial in September last year and the second trial in December last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.