UK phone phreaker Paul Spiby was handed down a sentence of 100 hours community service and two years' probation by a judge at Southwark Crown Court last Friday. Spiby was caught after he used a phone link to Nicaragua to run up £106,000 worth of free phone time over a 64-day period two years ago. He was facing 14 sample charges of extracting electricity. He was told by Judge George Bathurst-Norman that he narrowly escaped a prison sentence, according to a report in The Guardian. The judge went on to commend Spiby on his technical skills and advised him to stay on the right side of the law in future. Now aged 20, Spiby is planning to go to university. ®