Peter Francis-Macrae, 23, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was jailed at Peterborough Crown Court this week after being found guilty of fraudulent trading, threatening to destroy or damage property, making threats to kill, and blackmail. In a six-week trial, the court heard how Francis-Macrae had tricked thousands of businesses into sending him money to register a dot-eu domain name on their behalf.

He sent fraudulent e-mails to companies claiming they had to pay a renewal fee to avoid losing their existing domain names. Businesses which complained said Francis-Macrae bombarded them with a glut of further e-mails, and police and trading standards officers who investigated were threatened with petrol-bombing, the court was told.

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