An internet spammer convicted of running a ?1.6m e-mail scam from a bedroom in his father's house has been jailed for six years.
Peter Francis-Macrae, of St Neots, Cambs, was found guilty of threatening to kill and blackmail. The 23-year-old was also convicted of threatening to destroy or damage property, concealing criminal property and fraudulent trading.
He had offered thousands of e-mail and website names when he had no right. And when victims complained, he threatened to destroy their internet systems by sending millions of spam e-mails.
Peterborough Crown Court heard he also threatened to fire-bomb the headquarters of the county's trading standards department and petrol-bomb his local police headquarters.
When internet policing group Nominet posted warnings about his activities, he responded by saying he would attack its servers.
Francis-Macrae, who made more than ?100,000 per week from the scam, spent ?28,000 on designer clothes and on learning to fly helicopters, the court heard.
