A former Jagex developer who worked on Old School RuneScape (OSRS) has been sentenced after being found guilty of stealing more than EUR 344,175 in virtual gold and reselling it on the black market. Andrew Lakeman, 32, also known as Jed Sanderson, received a three-year prison term suspended for two years. Known within the community as “Mod Jed,” Lakeman began working on the game in 2015.
By 2018, Jagex identified an unusual pattern. Player accounts were being recovered under suspicious circumstances, after which valuable in-game items and gold disappeared from them. The studio initially suspected a glitch, but a closer investigation pointed toward an inside job.
How the OSRS Economy Made the Theft Valuable
The in-game economy in OSRS mirrors real-world markets. Players can trade items directly or sell them on the Grand Exchange, which operates much like a stock exchange. Because these virtual assets carry real monetary value, the missing items had a direct financial impact on affected players.
The breach was significant for a title that averages more than 100,000 concurrent players at any given time. Failing to address the issue risked undermining player trust, an especially sensitive concern given that the theft was carried out by an internal employee rather than an outside attacker.
How Jagex Tracked the Culprit
To catch the person responsible, Jagex changed how account recoveries functioned and quietly modified its firewall without informing staff. That change allowed the company’s IT team to trace the illegal activity back to Mod Jed. Lakeman denied the accusations, claiming someone had hacked his account to carry out the thefts. Jagex terminated his employment regardless and reported the matter to police.
Investigators later determined that the stolen virtual gold and in-game items were eventually sold on the black market for more than EUR 344,175. Lakeman also held EUR 424,195 in cash spread across several bank accounts, reportedly described as proceeds from cryptocurrency sales, though it remains unclear whether that sum was connected to his illicit activity.
Lakeman was arrested in July 2019. On September 3, he received a three-year sentence suspended for two years. The Cambridge Crown Court additionally ordered 150 hours of unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation.
“Lakeman was well aware that what he was doing was wrong, and the hundreds of thousands of pounds he gained from selling the in-game items is no different from any other theft,” Detective Constable Andrew McKeane said in a statement from the Cambridgeshire Constabulary. “Just because it’s virtual, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t face the full force of the law.”
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