A computer whiz kid has been bound over for one year after he was convicted of stealing $15 worth of Internet time from a former client.

"Stop hacking!'' Magistrate Archibald Warner told 20-year-old Micah McManus after a three and a half days of testimony in the second prosecution under the Computer Misuse Act of 1996.

In the first case a teenager was given a similar sentence after pleading guilty.

And the decision came after McManus, of Portland Lane, Sandys Parish, refused to take the stand in his own defence, something which Mr. Warner warned him that although it was his right, it would mean the prosecution's case went unchecked.

"You've gotten the best help you could get at no cost,'' Mr. Warner quipped at McManus' protests shortly after he was convicted. "You have had ample opportunity to get representation. You were unrepresented and I did my duty as magistrate.'' Mr. Warner engaged in intense legal arguments with Crown counsel Charmaine Smith over the admissibility of evidence, and twice adjourned the case and forced the prosecutor to properly submit phone and account records.

Only during the third day of the trial did McManus' defence emerge.

He got two prosecution witnesses to admit that a computer attached to a Local Area Network can be used by another computer as a gateway to the target computer's Internet account.

McManus claimed he owns a server which is part of a LAN and that was how his phone line was registered as using Mr. Smith's account.

North Rock Communications technician Sean Watkins and computer consultant William Pantry -- called in by Police to examine McManus' computer -- both agreed that such a scenario could happen.

The decision came after lengthy arguments between Mr. Warner and Mrs. Smith on the admissibility of evidence from a Policeman.

Mr. Warner rejected evidence from P.c. Lawrence Fox who claimed he heard McManus boast about his hacking exploits around the time he had been charged in November 1998.

But Mr. Warner said he was sure McManus had accessed Clarence Smith's North Rock Communications Internet account eight times for six hours on June 24, 1998.

Mr. Warner had heard that McManus was hired by Mr. Smith to work on his computer at his home.

He explained the binding over under section 64 of the Criminal Code would mean that if he were to be convicted of another criminal offence in the next year, he would also be sentenced for the hacking charge.

But if that time period were to pass, McManus would be allowed to go on with his life, Mr. Warner said.

Lifting the evidence file in the air, Mr. Warner said: "This matter simply disappears. In fact there is no conviction against you now. Stop hacking!'' Before he was sentenced, McManus told Mr. Warner he had little formal training in computer programming and repair, but had completed the important A Plus certification.

McManus has no previous convictions. His father, John McManus, who was called as a character witness, said McManus had been raised in a "Christian environment'', adding: "If he says he didn't do it, then we believe him. No matter what happens we're behind him.'' Mr. Warner questioned Mrs. Smith on whether P.c. Fox's testimony was prohibitive or prejudicial.

P.c. Fox, from the Police's computer department, was at Universal Electric on November 19, 1998 when he heard McManus bragging to a customer.

"McManus, who I didn't know, was bragging about his expertise as a computer hacker,'' P.c. Fox told Mr. Warner during day three of the trial. "He stated that he had in fact accessed the Internet using other people's accounts.'' P.c. Fox added: "McManus stated that the Police fraud squad was investigating him for it, but he said and I quote, `they'll never prove that in court'.'' But Mr. Warner, assisting the inexperienced McManus -- as he has done throughout the case -- then stepped in where a defence lawyer might.

Taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes, Mr. Warner said: "You must satisfy that the prohibitive outweighs the prejudicial.'' The Crown relied on BTC phone and North Rock log-in and log-out records to show a computer in McManus' bedroom was used to hack the Internet provider.