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Source :- Daily Telegraph 31/3/94       
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A man who cheated British Telecom by making 44,000 of calls to his girlfriend 
in Brazil without paying, escaped a jail sentence yesterday when a judge was  
told he was "blinded by love".
Paulo Baron, the son of a millionaire, spent hours talking to her from a call 
box using an electronic gadget he had bought for 10.

Guildford Crown Court heard that he was caught when a BT investigator saw him
in a call box in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Barron, 24, pleaded guilty to 10 sample charges of fraudulent use of a 
telecommunications system and asked for a further 254 offences to be taken
into consideration. He faced a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Mr Geoffrey Porter, defending, said Baron, of Copsem Lane, Oxshott, Surrey,
had been blinded by love.

An application by BT for 44,586.90 compensation was refused by Recorder Mr 
Stephen Waller, but he ordered Baron to pay 327 costs.

Sentancing him to 180 hours community service he said "I accept you were 
motivated by an emotional need to speak to your girlfriend. Goodness knows
why you didn't take up writing letters.

After the trial Baron said : "My girlfriend is very special to me and I love
her deeply. The trouble is it takes me a long time to tell her this.
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So what must we make of this. Is BT clamping down on blue boxing. I dont 
think so, the guy was caught not through being traced but by being seen using
the blue box at a pay phone, not at home like most people. This is not a 
bullshit file like the rest of them this is real. 

Should we be worried about this?..I dont think so. Blue boxing in the uk has 
become so casual now that many people use it just like they would to call 
someone normally ie paying. BT would find it very hard to prosecute 
individuals as they would need to know the name of the person doing the fraud. 
They cannot prosecute the owner of the line if other people are using the 
line. The only way BT could stop this method of fraud would be to put filters 
on the line as they do in the United States of America.

I think blue boxing is going to die pretty soon so my advice would be too 
continue to blue box until it dies. Rip BT off as much as you can guys. After
all, they do rip us off when it comes to charging us with their huge prices. 


L8rz...The RiZla

