An 18-month prison sentence for a computer engineer who deleted a firm's files in a row over payment could lead to harsher penalties for other computer-related offences, according to IT lawyers.

Hove Crown Court last week jailed Stephen Carey for hacking into a computer system and causing an estimated £50,000 of damage. Rupert Battcock, an IT lawyer at Nabarro Nathanson, said this "may indicate a trend towards heavier sentences".

After a dispute over work done for RP Ductwork of Hailsham, Carey deleted three years of design drawings. He was convicted of unauthorised modification of computer material under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Investigators said the times of deletion corresponded with the times that Carey's phone was connected to the system.

In the US, a court gave the Melissa virus writer a 20-month sentence earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to causing damage of at least £50m. Welsh hacker Raphael Gray was sentenced to three years' community service in 2001 after causing about £2m of damage. And the author of the Kournikova virus was sentenced to 150 hours' community service by a Dutch court last year for causing more than £100,000 of damage.

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