A home-schooled Queensland computer whiz who netted more than $30,000 onselling account details for an online battle arena game has escaped jail time.
Shane Stephen Duffy, 23, appeared in Brisbane District Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to several offences, including fraud and computer hacking.
The court heard he made just over $32,000 between May and October 2013 onselling details for inactive player accounts for the online game League of Legends, which is produced by LA-based developer Riot Games.
The money was obtained through 194 transactions, with sales usually organised via Skype, crown prosecutor Joshua Hanna said.
But the court heard Duffy objected to calling the account details "stolen" when questioned by a prospective buyer, telling them: "The word stolen is bad. The accounts I sell don't have people using them".
Many of the accounts had come from a database produced after a 2011 hack Duffy wasn't responsible for, Mr Hanna said.
Duffy had also taken part in a practice of targeting other players' servers and flooding their networks with data to hinder their performance in the game, thereby advancing their own match record.
A subsequent raid suggested Duffy intended to be part of a website that would market that tactic and offer "protection racket" support to other players for a fee, Mr Hanna said.
But defence barrister Patrick Wilson said the offences had been committed when Duffy was still "traumatised" by the loss of his father and withdrawing from the outside world.
Judge Tony Moynihan said Duffy's action had taken a financial toll on Riot Games and also incurred a "loss of good will" for the company.
However, he accepted the young man was now receiving psychiatric treatment, had lost a considerable amount of weight since tipping the scales at 150kg and had started socialising in "more appropriate ways".
Duffy's family wept in the gallery as Judge Moynihan sentenced him to a head term of two-and-a-half years with immediate parole.
He also imposed a $2500 two-and-a-half year good behaviour bond for Commonwealth offences, maintaining the June 30 parole date.
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