AN estate agents believes it has solved the mystery behind why its digital advertising board was showing pornography last week.

Whitegates Estate and Letting Agents, in Huddersfield Road, Mirfield, has concluded that an "opportunistic individual" passing by had loaded "indecent images and videos" onto the board by exploiting a fault and using the touchscreen.

The firm uses the display screen (pictured) to show properties to customers passing by.

But, the estate agents found out last Friday morning that the digital screen had been showing pornographic images and videos the previous evening (Thursday).

A post on the firm's Facebook page said: "We were made aware this morning of an incident with our property display screen that was showing indecent images and videos yesterday evening.

"It appears that our server was hacked after opening hours and we apologise for any distress this caused people walking or driving past.

"I can confirm the display screen was switched off first thing this morning when we were made aware."

The screen was also boarded up and the business investigated the systems in the back of the store to find out what had happened.

But there was no evidence of hacking or breaches to the "rear systems".

The estate agents decided to "carefully" start up the screen again today and it was then tha staff discovered a possible explanation.

When the digital display restarts after a power failure, the screen loads up on Google for a short amount of time.

The firm explained the touchscreen can be operated from the front during this period of rebooting and so believe someone took their chance and searched for something inappropriate to leave on the display.

A Facebook post from the estate agents today said: "After spending the last few days looking at the systems in the back we have not found any hacking evidence or breaches in the rear systems.

"We took the decision of plugging in the monitor today (carefully) to find that after a power failure and restart, the screen defaults to a 'Google' search page for a short time whilst rebooting, where the touchscreen can be operated from the front.

"Therefore we believe an 'opportunistic' individual who was passing searched for the image to leave on screen.

"Whilst far from acceptable, we are happy the rear was not compromised and entry was via the front.

"Thank you for your understanding Mirfield, we have had some very supportive messages from clients.

"The screen will remain off until we are sure this cannot happen again."