Hacker fined for crashing Emirates' computer system

A computer whizzkid has been fined £2,000 for hacking into the United Arab Emirates' only internet provider and causing the whole country's system to crash.

Lee Ashurst, 22, originally from Oldham in Greater Manchester, was convicted of misusing equipment, services or facilities provided by Emirates Telecommunications Corp Etisalat.

He was cleared of a second charge related to opening other people's mail.

Ashurst, who works for a construction company in the Gulf, is now facing a compensation claim of more than £500,000 from Etisalat after the Dubai Court of First Instance transferred his case to the civil courts.

He was working as a computer engineer at a Dubai construction firm in May last year when he began hacking into Etisalat's systems.

This left thousands of individual and business users increasingly frustrated as they were unable to log on to the web or access their e-mail.

Etisalat engineers traced the telephone number of the hacker and Ashurst was arrested in a police raid at his company-provided flat on June 14 last year.