Former Old School RuneScape developer Andrew Lakeman, known to the community as Mod Jed, has been sentenced for stealing virtual gold and items from players. The Cambridge Crown Court handed down a three-year sentence suspended for two years, along with 150 hours of unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation.
How Jagex Uncovered the Thief
Lakeman had worked for Jagex on Old School RuneScape since 2015. In 2018, the company noticed a suspicious pattern: player accounts were being recovered under strange circumstances, after which valuable items and gold would vanish. According to media reports, Jagex initially suspected a bug, but deeper investigations revealed it was an inside job.
The company therefore changed its account recovery process and covertly modified the firewall, allowing the IT team to trace the illegal activity directly to Mod Jed. Lakeman denied the allegations, claiming his account had been hacked so someone else could carry out the thefts. Despite this, Jagex dismissed him and reported the case to the police.
Verdict and Extent of the Damage
Investigators discovered that the stolen gold and items had been sold on the black market for over $400,000. According to some sources, Lakeman held $493,000 in cash across bank accounts, likely as proceeds from cryptocurrency sales. He was arrested in July 2019, and the verdict was delivered on September 3.
Detective Andrew McKeane of Cambridgeshire Constabulary commented on the case: "Lakeman was well aware that what he was doing was wrong, and the hundreds of thousands of pounds he made from selling in-game items is no different from any other theft. Just because they are virtual items does not mean he should not face the full force of the law."
Sources vary slightly on the exact value of the stolen property. While Tom's Hardware and CRBC News report more than $400,000, MassivelyOP cites an amount close to $500,000. The nature of the sentence has also been questioned in some commentary, as the three-year prison term was effectively suspended.
Legal Precedent
In 2022, Lakeman achieved a limited procedural victory in his lawsuit against Jagex regarding unfair dismissal, but his financial compensation was reduced and he did not return to the company. In this context, Judge Popplewell ruled that digital assets, such as in-game gold, can be the subject of theft charges.