Praise for businessman who nailed 'Weasel Boy' (From Gazette & Herald)

Praise for businessman who nailed 'Weasel Boy'

A PICKERING businessman who helped to convict a notorious internet fraudster has been praised by police and industry officials.

Dave Roberts, who runs the internet firm Nameline, was a witness at the trial of Peter Francis-Macrae, aka Weasel Boy.

Francis-Macrae ran a £1.6m e-mail scam from his home in Cambridgeshire. When victims complained, he threatened to destroy their internet systems by sending millions of spam e-mails. Along with these charges, he was found guilty of threatening to kill and blackmail.

Mr Macrae was sentenced to six years in jail in November at Peterborough Crown Court, following an eight-week trial, at which Mr Roberts was a witness.

Mr Roberts, 45, runs his business with his wife, Alison, in St Nicholas Way. It is an accredited domain registrar, providing customers with e-mail accounts and related services. When Francis-Macrae sent him a reminder for a domain name, he recognised it as a scam and phoned him. He recorded the conversation, in which Macrae threatened to attack Nominet, the registrar for all on-line addresses which end with '.uk'.

"These were serious threats as Nominet provides addresses for anything ending in '.uk' - so that's hospitals, police forces, businesses, you name it," said Mr Roberts.

He got in touch with the company, who in turn asked him to contact Cambridgeshire Fraud Squad.

"They came and got a statement from me and then I was called as a witness," said Mr Roberts. "I spent three days down there and it was very gruelling, there was a lot of waiting around and then there was a tough cross-examination."

However, he felt it was worth it to see a result. "My big fear was that the judge wouldn't realise the seriousness of the crimes. It is good to know he is behind bars, and the technology will have taken a few strides forward by the time he gets out," he said.

Now Legend Internet Plc, a major network provider, has selected Nameline as the winner of their 2005 internet awards following Mr Roberts brave actions.

Dave said: "I'm both surprised and delighted. I'm sure that most people in our line of business would have done the same. Anyone who receives spam in their mailbox will be happy to know that the UK's most prolific spammer is now safely behind bars.

"This is another black eye for Mr Macrae and a clear message to other UK internet-based fraudsters that every now and then they will come across someone like me, who will not run away from their threats, but will instead use the technology they abuse to bring them to justice."

DC Jody Faro of Cambridgeshire Police Force, who led the investigation, said: "We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Roberts for the assistance he gave to our investigation. I hope that the industry award he has received highlights to members of the public that we need their help in our investigations and that information from them can result in lengthy convictions, like that of Francis Macrae."

Updated: 15:22 Wednesday, January 18, 2006