Thursday, September 23, 2010

Teen Jailed for Extortion in Gay Chat line Sting


An Edinburgh teenager has been jailed for 45 months after he was found guilty of extorting £87,700 (116,266 USD) in a sting on men using gay and adult chat lines.

Kelz Sutherland, 19, was sentenced to spend 45 months behind bars for threatening to expose men who were tricked into discussing sex with underage boys and girls.

Sutherland pleaded guilty last month to nine charges of extortion dating from January 2008 to December 2009. He was caught after one of the men refused to pay and contacted the authorities.

According to the BBC, Sutherland would steer conversations with the men who called the chat line into talk of underage sex. He would then interrupt the call in a different voice and pretend to be a chat line monitor, saying the conversations would have to be reported to police.

Sutherland would then offer to wipe out the recordings in exchange for money. Police found a Lloyds TSB bank account in the name of Sutherland's mother with more than $200,000 deposited into it. She told authorities he had sole use of that account and she knew nothing of the blackmail scheme.

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