A teenager of a small town in North East England has been jailed for conducting a scam online.
The offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but resided in the town of Billingham (near Middlesbrough) was arrested on 7th January.
The offender went around online emailing several unsigned bands and artists and other people using an online alias called "Michael Fordham" pretending to be from Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
He was offering random people interviews which some prepared for and it was a massive waste of their time. After the interview failed to take place the victims raised the alarm with ABC in Australia, who claimed there was no such worker as Michael Fordham.
ABC contacted the police in Australia who traced the email to England and worked with British police to arrest the offender.
Cleveland Police were contacted and arrested the teenager. He appeared before Judge Jamie Simpson at Teesside Crown Court today.
Mr. Justice Jamie Simpson told the teenager "What you did to these people is an outrage. I have never seen a case which makes me so sick to the stomach. I am sentencing you to ten years in a young offender's institute. You must also carry out 800 hours of unpaid work and write a letter of apology to every victim and pay them £1,000 compensation."
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