A computer hacker from Eastbourne has been jailed for maliciously altering a company's records, deleting three years' worth of files.

Stephen Carey used his home computer to get into the customer files of a sheet metal work firm, Hove Crown Court heard.

Carey, 28, used his hacking skills to change drawings of work being designed by RP Ductwork, of the Diplocks Industrial Estate, Hailsham.

He then tried to cover his tracks by deleting files on his computer hard drive and altering files contained in the company's computer system.

It was estimated it had cost the firm between £25,000 and £50,000 to put right the damage caused by the hacker.

Carey, of Milfoil Drive, Eastbourne, was convicted of unauthorised modification of computer material at the end of a nine-day trial last month.

Carey was a computer engineer for Renaissance Computer Company, of Oaklands Way, Hailsham, when he was called to carry out work for RP Ductwork, a sheet metal sub-contracting firm.

Its regular IT engineer was unavailable so it contacted Renaissance, who assigned Carey to the job.

Carey attended an appointment to connect two newly-bought terminals to the system on April 10, last year, staying for about three hours after being shown round the factory.

However, after he had left, RP Ductwork bosses found two terminals were no longer able to print, send or receive emails.

Carey was called back the same day to solve the problem.

With the help of other RP Ductwork staff, he managed to get the computers to print but the email system still failed.

The following day it was also found that the Radan computer drawing system was no longer working correctly.

Again, Carey was summoned back to rectify the problem. He spent most of the day with £80-a-day software engineers from Radan to sort out the problems.

Managers also noticed their system was slowing down considerably. They contacted their original IT engineer who found a number of errors and managed to clear them.

On May 1, staff at RP Ductwork noticed the drawings directory from the system was vanishing before their eyes.

The firm shut down the system and called its IT engineer. He found someone had gained access using the company's analogue data line and had logged into the system.

He found that all drawing files for the past three years had been removed from the system.

British Telecom's Nuisance Calls Bureau was contacted.

It found the analogue data line had been contacted nine times between April 30 and May 1, 2001 by one phone number - Carey's.

On May 3, officers raided Carey's home where he was arrested and computer equipment seized.

Carey denied accessing RP Ductwork's computer system and deleting any files. But police were able to recover the deleted files.

Officers found the times of deletion directly corresponded with the time that Carey's phone number was connected to RP Ductwork's system.

The father-of-one and step-father-of-three was jailed for 18 months when he appeared for sentence yesterday.

Judge David Rennie ordered that Carey should serve half of the sentence and the rest would be suspended after he was released on licence.