A computer buff who hacked into two Hervey Bay ATM machines and stole $28,000 over a seven month period in 2007 was released with a two-year probation and 100 hours community service after agreeing to pay reparations.

Ashley Brian Sommer, 23, normally works in a pizza parlour. But information he found online and in an ATM repairman’s manual taught him how to access the hard drive and alter the settings on one machine in Maryborough Road and another at a Bundaberg petrol station, allowing him to make large withdrawals. He stole $7,500 from the Maryborough ATM and $21,120 from the one in Bundaberg.

Sommer used debit cards borrowed from his mother, girlfriend, and two friends, Roderic Cabanilla Read and Christopher Scott Lockyer, to access the cash, as well as his own.

Read and Lockyer were charged separately in Bundaberg Magistrates’ Court in December 2007. Read pled guilty to computer hacking, Lockyer to receiving stolen goods, and both received six months of probation. They also agreed to repay the $5460 they’d received through the scam. Their convictions were not recorded.

Sommer himself was charged in August 2007 with two counts of attempted computer hacking and another of computer hacking to the value of $5,000 or greater.

Although prosecutors requested two years of prison for Sommer, based on his role as the group’s leader and the duration of the offense, his defence team argued for leniency, bringing forward his lack of other offenses, the good character Sommer has maintained otherwise, his high probability of rehabilitation, and his ability to make immediate and full reparations.

The latter particularly sat well with the judge, Anthony Rafter of Bundaberg District Court, who stated he also considered the defendant’s age, academic performance, and desire to enter the Australian Defence Force as an avionics technician when deciding sentence. The conviction will not be recorded.

Source: www.news-mail.com.au