British spam scammer in the dock

Peter Francis-Macrae is accused of issuing threats and verbal abuse

A British man is in court today accused of issuing death threats to officials investigating his internet scams.

Peterborough Crown Court heard that Peter Francis-Macrae, 23, was earning £200,000 a fortnight by posing as a domain name registrar.

Prosecutors allege that he sent spam offering bogus .eu domain name registrations, and letters offering to renew current websites that were up for renewal. 

As police trading standards moved in, Francis-Macrae responded with a barrage of threats and verbal abuse, threatening to cut one man's throat and telling a police receptionist that he "hoped she died of cancer", according to the prosecution.

He denies making threats to kill, threatening to destroy or damage property belonging to Cambridgeshire's trading standards department, blackmail, fraudulent trading and transferring criminal property, or money laundering.

However, Alyn Hockey, director of research at email and web security specialist Clearswift, does not believe that Francis-Macrae will receive a custodial sentence.

"I don't think he'll go down for this. I'd expect a hefty fine, depending on the judge in question," he said. "You'd like an example to be set and you'd like a stiff sentence, but I don't think the law has enough teeth."

When police investigated Francis-Macrae's activities he allegedly sent out spam with the telephone number of the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, resulting in thousands of callers jamming the police switchboard. He also threatened to bomb the police station, according to the prosecution.

Francis-Macrae, who uses the name 'Weaselboy', is the only UK resident listed on the SpamHaus Project's Register Of Known Spam Operations. This blacklist identifies the top 200 people and groups reportedly responsible for the majority of spam.

The court heard that the accused ran his operations from a bedroom at his father's house and spent the profits on a lavish lifestyle, including £12,000 of Yves Saint Laurent clothing and £16,000 in helicopter lessons.

The case continues.