A man, who is accused of unlawfully accessing accounts of National Lottery users, is set to be taken to court in December. Next month, the 29-year-old Anwar Batson will appear at Crown Court to face charges that he used Sentry MBA, a hacking program, to gain access and steal money from the online gambling accounts of some users of the UK National Lottery.
According to the claims of prosecutors, the young man accessed the aforementioned accounts in November 2016, after he downloaded some hacking tools in 2015. As explained by prosecutors, he has then come up with a plan on how to withdraw money from National Lottery accounts.
After the hearing that took place yesterday, the Londoner’s case would be sent to Southwark Crown Court. A plea and case management hearing is scheduled for December 10th. At the time when the previous hearing was held, November 13th, the accused spoke only to confirm his British nationality, name and address. The Westminster Magistrates’ Court did not hear any plea on the case and an unconditional bail was granted to Batson.
Batson remains innocent unless found guilty. The Crown court’s jury is set to hear the full details of the allegations at the time the next hearing is held.
The Accused Faces Several Charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990
As mentioned above, the man is facing allegations of two crimes committed under section 3A(2) of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and other two under section 3A(3) of the Act.
Both sections regard supplying or offering to supply an article that could be used to commit or to help the commission of an offence under sections 1 or 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Section 1 criminalises the access to computer material without permission, while Section 3 makes it a crime to weaken or damage the operation of a computer or purpose, or to recklessly do something that might harm a computer’s operation.
Apart from the allegations he is facing under the two above-mentioned sections, the 29-year-old London resident is also accused of committing one crime under section 2(1)(b) of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which is focused on actions aimed at making a computer perform a certain function to secure getting an unauthorised access to a program or some data stored in a computer with the intention to facilitate the commission of a criminal offence.
Anwar Batson also stands accused of two fraud charges that he had intentionally withdrawn funds from some National Lottery users’ accounts. Allegedly, the man has also used these people credit card details to authorise the purchase of North Face clothing for himself.
Three magistrates were present at the start of the November 13th hearing but shortly after that, one of them left. The chairwoman explained to the court that the Westminster Magistrates’ Court was currently understaffed, which was why he needed to go to another courtroom.
- Author
Daniel Williams
