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Bank Hacker escapes prison sentence

By Derek Sooman

On March 2, 2006, 7:02 PM

A man who has been convicted of hacking into bank internet sites has escaped a prison sentence. Thomas Gawith transferred funds of almost $14,000 between Kiwibank accounts in June last year. The twenty year old was sentenced on one of the six charges to 80 hours community work and 12 months supervision.

Justice Atkins said Gawith avoided a prison term because he did not benefit financially from the offending and the money had been returned to the victims. He said that if Gawith reoffends in the coming year, he would be called for sentencing on the other five charges.

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User Comments: 7

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  1. Well finnaly there starting to take this as more of a commin thing and not going with 10 years to prison or something, even though for a crime like this is was a bit petty...
  2. ju don' know who you ****in' wit, ese...i don't know what else to say
  3. At least the ppl have their money back. I'm sure thats all the banks care about.
  4. People don't realize that hacking into a system is one thing, just to see what's there, and stealing is another thing. Do you honestly think it's moral to punish someone who outsmarted the bank system? If the people got their money back, isn't every thing OK?How about the guys who make serials, keygens and cracks for the appz? Would you shoot them or just torture them? In that case, I still keep my opinion: F*** them. And their law. (goes to BSA, RIAA, MPAA and rest of jerks). Let's get serious: hacking is NOT a crime.
  5. Some of these comments astound me. Hacking into a bank system IS a crime. I dont care who you are or where your coming from.The people got their money back, but he didnt have to take the money in the first place. I guarentee you anyone who thinks differently would reconsider if they woke up one morning to find their bank account $5,000 short with no explanation other than an IP address and a transfer in the account logs. Regardless of if they eventually got their money back.C'mon people, be realistic here. Next your going to tell me that a crook breaking into a house is completely fine as long as they dont take anything. Thats nonsense.
  6. I don't know asphix, it's a touchy subject...
  7. [b]Originally posted by fiziks:[/b][quote]ju don' know who you ****in' wit, ese...i don't know what else to say[/quote] What rough-draft??

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