Welsh teen guilty of virtual money theft from RuneScape

A Welsh teenager has been found guilty of computer misuse offences relating to the theft of virtual currency from a RuneScape account.

Nineteen year old Kieron Belmont of no fixed abode was staying on a friend's sofa at the time of the offence.

The two fell out and after his host had gone to bed Belmont logged onto her computer and got into her partner's RuneScape account. He then traded away the credits which had taken six years to accumulate.

He left early the next morning, taking two bottles of booze with him.

Defence solicitor Stuart John told Swansea Magistrates' Court:

"He saw an opportunity to carry out a spiteful act — he knew the password to the computer because he had used it before.

"He effectively decimated the credits Miss Jenkins's partner had built up over the previous five or six years.

"These credits do not have any real value — their only value is in the game."

RuneScape explicitly forbids 'real world trading' of RuneScape items. The ban was brought in after the game was hit by gold farmers - mainly Chinese companies which play the games in order to sell on credits earned.

Belmont was told to pay £16 compensation for the stolen booze, £85 prosecution costs and £15 victim surcharge.There was no separate punishment for the computer misuse offences, This is South Wales reports.