Uh, Owen is the one without a uniform…

A teenager from New Zealand who was accused of stealing millions of pounds has been let off without a conviction, despite pleading guilty to hacking into computers around the world.

18-year-old Owen Thor Walker, known online as “AKILL”, was ordered to pay just £5,500 in costs and damages after a high court hearing in Hamilton, New Zealand, and could even end up working with local police to help them understand online crime.

Walker was arrested in November last year after an investigation involving the New Zealand police, FBI, US Secret Service and Dutch police, and was initially accused of leading a computer hacking ring that had stolen more than £12m from victims around the world.

After a high court hearing, however, police said Walker was in fact employed by the group to write software which they then used to access people’s bank accounts. According to police, Walker did not directly take money from people’s bank accounts, but the software he wrote was used by other criminals…

Original reports of the bust did make it sound like a boy genius and master criminal. His youth impressed the journalists, no doubt.

Good to see his botnet down and some of his accomplices heading for the slammer.