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Dark Website Owner Loses Sentence Bid for Encouraging Hoax Calls
Developing
In Short: A 26-year-old man who ran a dark website encouraging hoax bomb calls and swatting incidents has lost his appeal against a two-year and three-month jail sentence.
Callum Dare, who ran a dark website between 2018 and 2019, has lost a challenge against his jail sentence at the Court of Appeal. The sentence was handed down after he admitted to encouraging and boasting about swatting incidents, including a hoax call in Cardiff that caused widespread panic and disruption.
The Crown Prosecution Service stated that when Dare was arrested, police found files containing sophisticated phishing fraud designed to obtain personal or payment details of dark web users. However, his barrister argued that the judge 'fell into error by treating deterrence as a trump card' and that 'factors weigh in favour of suspending the sentence.
Mr Justice Linden noted that Dare 'appeared to be seeking to take credit' online for a hoax call in the United States that claimed there were nail bombs and hostages at a hotel in Cardiff, leading to the area being sealed off. Despite this, three senior judges dismissed the appeal bid, ruling that the sentence was 'entirely open to her.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- The 26-year-old ran a dark website between 2018 and 2019, when he was aged between 18 and 19, where he shared links related to swatting.
Sources
- The Independentlink