Teenage cyber raider jailed

Mark Hayes was bullied at school, lacked social skills and was afraid to leave his house.

But as a loner at his keyboard, the 19-year-old used his considerable skills to transform himself into "the archetypal computer criminal".

Yesterday, the Auckland teenager's three-year cyber crime spree came to an end when he was jailed for two years and 11 months after pleading guilty to more than 100 charges relating to internet fraud.

Hayes began his campaign aged just 17. Using the online nickname DeeJay Evil, he used his computer talents to access bank accounts through auction website Trade Me.

In November and December 2004 he raided other people's accounts to pay for more than $18,000 worth of computer equipment and clothes.

He was eventually caught after Trade Me alerted police to a number of "suspicious trades" in January 2005.

While awaiting trial, Hayes, by now 18, struck again.

In June last year, he installed a "keystroke logger" virus on new victims' computers, accessing bank accounts and "plundering" significant sums, said Judge David Harvey.

He set up accounts in false names with video game and DVD rental companies and used the stolen account details to pay for the orders, getting them sent to an abandoned house close to his own Avondale home.

"You used the classic hacker excuse of seeing how far you could push security," said Judge Harvey.

"In reality you were committing crime again and again and again."

During the sentencing at the Auckland District Court yesterday, Hayes' offending was described as malevolent, sinister and a menace.

But the court also heard he struggled with a difficult home life, had been taken out of school because of bullying and suffered from a form of agoraphobia.

Judge Harvey said Hayes was a "serious and recidivist" offender, but one who lacked social skills.

"In many ways you present as the archetypal computer criminal," he said.

Hayes pleaded guilty to 91 counts of accessing a computer for a dishonest purpose and 23 of dishonestly using a document.

The teenager was also told to pay reparation totalling more than $16,000.