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"One of our Notables narrowly escapes jail...."

From The Daily Telegraph: 7/7/2001.
(See if you can guess who it is...)

Anti-Gates hacker spared jail

A teenage computer hacker who stole the credit card details of Bill Gates and used them to send him Viagra, escaped a jail sentence yesterday.

, who called himself the "Saint of E-commerce", sent the pills to Mr Gates - the head of computer giant Microsoft - at the company's headquarters in Washington state, as part of a "criminal crusade" highlighting the dangers of internet shopping.

At a previous hearing he admitted to 10 charges of hacking into corporate websites under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act.

He was tracked by the FBI, the Mounties, and a team of computer experts to his bedroom in Clynderwen, PEMBROKESHIRE, where he used a £700 home computer to plunder thousands of names, addresses, and credit card details.

Yesterday, at Swansea Crown Court, Judge Gareth Davies ordered to carry out a three-year community probation order linked to treatment for a mental disorder.

Judge Davies said he accepted that had not been motivated by personal gain, even though he admitted two separate counts of theft using stolen credit card details. But had shown no sympathy for the owners of thousands of credit cards whose details he had published on the internet, and it was only through luck that the information was not used to commit fraud.

actions had disrupted businesses and caused worry, inconvenience and expense.

Leighton Davies, QC, prosecuting, told the earlier hearing: " was on a criminal crusade. He targeted e-commerce sites whose computer systems were run by a Microsoft program which suffered a security weakness.

" romantically styled himself as the Saint of E-comerce, that was the name of one of his websites. He wanted to broadcast the message that internet shoppers were not to trust retailers with their credit card details."

Earlier the judge had heard that had suffered from chronic low self-esteem since childhood, which had contributed to his criminal actions.

Medical evidence showed that four years before the offences had banged his head. His condition had deteriorated and eventually gave rise to the fraud.

, who has been offered several jobs, said he regretted not what he had done, but the way he did it. "I would do it all again but another time I would choose to ensure that I acted legally."

"(Yeah, right)"

"Shut up."

_________

So, fellow posters, court is now in session. The trial of the notables begins here and now. Your task, should you wish to accept it, is to find out which of the seven it could be, given the damning evidence from the story above.

Shouldn't take too long...

Yeah, he's got 3 years psychiatric help.

Didnt that kid get off because he had "Mental Problems!", quite funny though. National Hero of Wales that Boy :-)

Come to think of it Grix, you did disappear a few days ago...

Thing about computer crime related FBI raids, is that they tend not to know what they're looking for. I seriously doubt your hacker friend has an electric toaster anymore.

They DIDN'T want Viagra, they sent it to Bill Gates using his credit card.

It's a true story, indeed, someone in Pembrokeshire, where I live, has done this. FBI raids in his house.

But, to quote huge comeback musician, it wasn't me.

Lets play a game and guess why one of the Notables might want viagra!

It is serious... isn't it... *looks worried*.

heh, it was pretty funny.

*looks from side to side*

The topic was hilarious, the fact that people didn't get it / took it seriously is funnier.

Hi Sheepy... there are computers in Spain? Wow. Learn something every day.

zeldapro wrote:
> Er-no??? Hates Microsoft, dont really know why he would want viagra
> though!!!

I can guess!!!

:)

It's not a notable...it's a staff newbie...