8-year Old School RuneScape saga comes to a close with former dev sentenced for stealing $400K in gold and items from players

First reported by Dexerto, former Jagex employee Andrew “Mod Jed” Lakeman has been sentenced to three years in prison (suspended for two years) for using dev tools to remove items from player accounts, then selling them online. An investigation found that Lakeman had earned more than $400,000 through this activity.

Former OSRS developer Mat K elaborated on some of the saga in a 2021 episode of OSRS Podcasts. Lakeman was a content developer for OSRS hired in 2015, and he used other Jagex employee’s credentials to manipulate the game’s appeals system for moderation and account recovery to swipe items and gold from players’ inventories.

It’s unclear when Lakeman began stealing from players, but according to Dexerto, Jagex realized this was foul play and not a glitch in 2018, and set a trap for the digital bandit: The company bolstered OSRS’ security measures without informing most of the dev team. Lakeman was caught out, fired from Jagex, and reported to the police, who arrested him in 2019.

“Just because it’s virtual, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t face the full force of the law,” said Detective Constable Andrew McKeane in a statement for the Cambridge Constabulary. “Given the rapid growth of online and virtual worlds, the justice system is going to have to keep pace and adapt to these new and emerging crimes.”

Back in 2022, Lakeman actually scored a minor procedural victory through an unfair dismissal counter-complaint, but his financial reward was significantly reduced, and he was unable to secure a requested reinstatement at Jagex. Earlier this year, we reported on presiding judge Lord Justice Popplewell’s ruling that Lakeman could be sued for theft over digital assets like RuneScape gold, precipitating this sentencing.

This grim saga aside, things have been going pretty great for Jagex and Old School Runescape. The company held its biggest live event to date with the Deadman All Stars esports tournament in Chicago this June, and OSRS is bigger now than OG RuneScape ever was.