A "public menace" who set up bogus web sites using the names of famous companies to gain customers' credit card details was jailed for a year by a High Court judge today.
Marks & Spencer took action against Craig Cottrell, 23, because they said Scotland Yard are "inundated with similar scams" and they wanted to protect their customers' bank accounts until criminal action can be taken against him.
The company used the civil courts to shut down Cottrell, decribed as a "serial cyberspace fraudster" who has also set up bogus web sites in the name of Tesco, Cadbury and Legoland.
Cottrell, with addresses in Reading, Berks, and Skellingthorpe, Lincoln, has changed his name by deed poll to Legoland Windsor and also uses a variety of aliases, said Shirley Bothroyd, representing Marks and Spencer in court today.
She told Mr Justice Lightman that Cottrell, who did not appear at court, used his false domain names to gain credit card details from customers and then used them to buy goods on the Internet which are delivered to his address in Caversham Road, Reading.
Marks and Spencer had successfully applied at the High Court for orders compelling Cottrell to hand over details of customers who had fallen for his scam and his registered websites but he had failed to comply, said Miss Bothroyd.
She said he should be jailed for contempt of court for his "wilful disobedience" in failing to comply with the court orders.
Mr Justice Lightman said Cottrell was using the domain names "in order to perpetrate frauds on members of the public and in the course of so doing seriously put at risk the reputation of Marks and Spencer".