Zynga Poker Chip Theif gets two years in prison

Posted 3/19/11 : UK hacker sentenced for virtual chip theft
 
Ashley Mitchell, the 29 year old Brit who hacked into Zynga and stole $12 million-worth of virtual chips  was sentenced in the Exeter Crown Court this week, receiving two years in prison.
 
Mitchell was also handed an additional 30 weeks imprisonment in respect of a separate offence of breaching an earlier 40-week suspended sentence for an unrelated hacking in 2008.
 
On sentencing, Judge Philip Wassal noted that Mitchell has profited by some GBP 53 000 from the sale of some of the stolen chips, and had admitted to five charges related to the hack and theft while asking for another 41 offences to be taken into consideration.
 
"You used a considerable amount of expertise, through software you bought, to hack into their computer system," the judge said. "The means by which you gained access through their security showed elaborate research and a lot of persistence. The time you must have spent doing this must have been considerable."
 
"People rely on computer systems," the judge went on. "Anyone who has managed to get into these systems for their own ends should expect a stiff sentence."
 
Defending Mitchell, lawyer Ben Darby admitted that at one point his client was spending GBP1,000 a day on gambling websites.