Spousebuster busted, sent to hail

A MENACING letter to an old woman transformed Brett Sutcliffe from a private investigator to a handcuffed prisoner facing a jail term.

A MENACING letter to an old woman transformed Brett Sutcliffe from a private investigator to a handcuffed prisoner facing a jail term.

After Pauline English, 78, unwittingly interrupted a covert operation in July last year, Sutcliffe posed as a federal police agent to write to her and threaten her with arrest.

Sutcliffe, 28, looked shocked as Downing Centre Local Court magistrate Pat O'Shane yesterday jailed him for nine months for impersonating a Commonwealth public official.

As director of the firm Spousebusters - which spies on cheating marriage partners - Sutcliffe was carrying out surveillance from a parked car when Mrs English drove up alongside him.

She had asked him to move from the disabled parking spot outside her North Bondi home but he refused.

The commotion led to Sutcliffe's client pulling the pin on the operation.

The court has heard that, frustrated by the aborted mission, Sutcliffe sent Mrs English a letter bearing the Australian Federal Police logo and signed by "Risk Officer 34324421234".

It claimed she wrongly interfered with an AFP probe into matters of national security.

Sutcliffe was caught after Mrs English did some sleuthing.

Spotting him in a TV story on Spousebusters, she followed his website links and identified him as the "federal agent".

Sutcliffe, who has lost his private investigator's licence, was handcuffed outside court and led to the cells. He was later granted bail ahead of an appeal of his maximum 12-month sentence.