pounds 10,000 scam by computer boy, 11

AN 11-YEAR-OLD computer masterminded a pounds 10,000 scam from his bedroom, piracy investigators said. The European Leisure Software Publishers Association said he was the youngest pirate they had encountered.

But because of his age, no action will be taken against him. The association's crime squad was called in after a tip-off that an independent North-east school was being flooded with pirate games, selling in shops at pounds 50, and soon found the supplier was one of its pupils. They recovered 200 illegally copied disks, worth pounds 10,000, from his home, but ruled out a prosecution because of his age.

Investigators found that the Sunderland boy had been copying the games on computer equipment bought for him by his unsuspecting parents and was selling them at school for unknown sums.