Old School Runescape mod fired in 2018 for stealing player gold wins unfair dismissal complaint

pcgamer.com:

In 2018, Jagex fired Old School Runescape moderator Jed Sanderson(opens in new tab)—known to the community as Mod Jed—for «gross misuse of moderator privileges»: Specifically, that he was stealing huge amounts of in-game currency from other players. But the Cambridge Employment Tribunal in the UK has determined that Sanderson was unfairly terminated, and awarded him damages as a result.

The case began back in mid-2018, when an Old School Runescape player claimed that he'd lost 45 billion coins because of a "serious data breach(opens in new tab)." That represents a lot of money in the real world: Exchange rates fluctuate but based on current prices at gold selling sites, that much Old School Runescape gold is worth roughly $20,000.

Some players doubted the veracity of the tale, but a couple of months after the complaint went up, Jagex confirmed it was legit, announcing that a member of the team «was dismissed from employment at Jagex following gross misuse of moderator privileges.» The studio didn't name the employee but a deep-dive Resetera(opens in new tab) post alleged that it was Sanderson. Sanderson was previously known to the community because of his association with Reign of Terror, an Old School Runescape clan accused of using DDoS attacks to cheat in Runescape tournaments(opens in new tab).

Anyway, Sanderson was fired and that was that—except it wasn't, because it turns out that in November 2018, just a couple months after he was let go, he filed a complaint(opens in new tab) with the Employment Tribunal. It took more than three years for the claim to grind through the system, but following a hearing in January, the tribunal issued a finding in favor of Sanderson in February.

The full ruling(opens in new tab) is