By Will Sturgeon, 12 January 2005 12:45
NEWS A British man charged with taking part in the world's largest ever identity theft scam has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US.
Philip Cummings, 35, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and fraud in September 2004. He was sentenced yesterday in a New York courtroom and will serve his sentence in the US where he had worked as a computer helpdesk employee.
The sentence was the maximum available to the judge after Cummings' scam victimised 30,000 people between 1999 and 2000, causing losses of at least $2.7m.
Cummings was charged with selling-on passwords and codes while working for Long Island-based Teledata Communications, a company which provided access to credit databases.
Another member of the operation was sentenced to more than three years in prison in June 2004. According to reports, investigations into other members of the scam are ongoing.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
I presume he gets parole for being good and for "addressing offending behaviour" - or does that not happen in the US ?
2. tann
But did they get the right man?
3. anonymous
If he was a corporate big wig, that stole millions, he would not even see any jail time.
4. Drew Edgar
So where's the $2.7 million?
How much did he get?
5. SinclairZX
He will be working for a large corporation soon as a security expert!
6. anonymous
Thankyou U.S.A., For having the bottle to lock him for 14 years. In United Kingdom he would probably have got 3 years and been out on parole in 18 months to spend his ill gotten gains. He will probably have invested "his money" somewhere any way to feed his selfish way of life. A toe rag to the end.
7. anonymous
I guess were getting used to this kind of thing hapening, or we will soon.
shame we can't fight back without being nailed