A man described as the UK's most prolific spammer was jailed for six years on Wednesday at Peterborough Crown Court. Peter Francis-Macrae of Cambridgeshire was found guilty of fraudulent trading, concealing criminal property, threatening to destroy or damage property, making threats to kill and blackmail, after a six week trial.

Francis-Macrae was accused of defrauding thousands of people by tricking them into sending him money to register a dot-eu domain name on their behalf. He was also charged with sending fraudulent emails to companies claiming they had to pay a renewal fee to avoid losing their domain names.

It has been estimated that Francis-Macrae received up to £1.6m (US $2,75m) through the scams.

Businesses who complained said Francis-Macrae bombarded them with emails. Police and trading standards officers who investigated told the court they were threatened with petrol-bombing.

Francis-Macrae was arrested after threatening Nominet UK, the registry that controls the dot-uk domain.