Court Sentences RuneScape Developer Who Stole Player Gold - He Earned Over $400,000

The enterprising specialist was arrested almost 10 years ago.

Recently, Cambridgeshire Police announced that a "hacker was sentenced to prison for stealing virtual gold." This perpetrator is 32-year-old Andrew "Mod Jed" Lakeman, a former developer who started working at the British studio Jagex, known for the RuneScape franchise.

In May 2018, Jagex support noticed suspicious activity related to account recovery – someone was stealing valuable in-game items, including gold. Such activity soon ceased, and developers initially attributed it to a system glitch. However, in the same year, incidents began to recur, and the studio concluded that someone from the development team was behind it.

Jagex conducted a special operation: they changed firewall settings and did not inform employees about it to avoid scaring off the suspected perpetrator. As a result, Lakeman fell into the trap – IT specialists determined that the source of this suspicious activity was his home.

When Lakeman was questioned by management, he denied everything, claiming he didn't understand how his device was connected to these incidents and "suggesting" that he might have been hacked. Nevertheless, he was fired, and the investigation results were handed over to the police. Further investigation showed that the developer was selling virtual gold and other valuable items obtained fraudulently on the black market.

It was established that he received over $400,000 in cash from cryptocurrency dealers. Police also found messages to his wife about his plans to "make a lot of money" before leaving Jagex, and he also discussed expensive RuneScape accounts.

In July 2019, Lakeman was arrested and formally charged. He recently pleaded guilty, and the court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for two years (during which he cannot commit other crimes, or he faces actual prison time). He was also ordered to perform 150 hours of community service and complete a 25-day rehabilitation course. In addition, funds obtained from the thefts are planned to be recovered.

Detective Constable Andrew McKeane, who led the investigation, emphasized that this is theft like any other: "Lakeman was well aware that his actions were illegal, and the hundreds of thousands of pounds he received from selling in-game items are no different from any other theft. The fact that these are virtual items does not mean he should not be punished to the full extent of the law."