Cybercrime: Teenage Hacker in Global Scam Discharged

A teenager from New Zealand who was accused of stealing millions of pounds has been discharged without a conviction, despite pleading guilty to hacking into computers around the world.

Owen Thor Walker, 18, known online as AKILL, was ordered to pay £5,500 in costs and damages after a high court hearing in Hamilton, New Zealand, and could work with police against online crime after Justice Judith Potter discharged him.

Lawyers in the case told the Associated Press that officers were interested in using Walker's skills for positive purposes and Detective Inspector Peter Devoy said that option was open.

Walker was arrested last November after an investigation by New Zealand and Dutch police, the FBI and the US Secret Service, and was accused of leading computer hackers who had stolen more than £12m from victims around the world.

After the court hearing, police said Walker had been employed to write software used by the ring to skim bank accounts. Walker had not directly taken money himself.

Walker admitted accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, accessing computer systems without authorization, interfering with computer systems and possessing software with the intent to commit crime. His case was part of a crackdown on the ring, which has seen eight people around the world charged or convicted since last year. Thirteen others are subject to arrest warrants.

The ring, said police, had built a network of more than a million zombie computers - a botnet - to steal credit card information, manipulate stock trades and crash the systems of large companies.