UK Court of Appeal says stolen RuneScape gold can count as criminal theft

The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that taking RuneScape gold from player accounts without permission can be treated as criminal theft, overturning an earlier decision that said the game currency didn’t qualify as “property” under the Theft Act 1968. So it’s not just virtual currency any more. Courts finally recognize in-game currency as valuable.

The case involves Andrew Lakeman, a former Jagex content developer accused of accessing player accounts by hacking and or using credentials tied to the account recovery team, then stealing gold and selling it for Bitcoin. His defense previously argued that because RuneScape gold wasn’t legally “stealable property,” he couldn’t be prosecuted for theft. That argument worked at first, but it didn’t hold up on appeal.

One of the key points on appeal was whether RuneScape gold is “rivalrous,” meaning if one person takes it, the original owner actually loses it. The earlier ruling suggested gold wasn’t rivalrous, partly because the supply is effectively unlimited and individual coins are interchangeable. The Court of Appeal rejected that reasoning, comparing it to ordinary property like paper clips: mass-produced and replaceable, but still property in the eyes of the law.

According to the Court of Appeal judgment, the court also put weight on the fact that RuneScape gold is traded outside the game for real money, despite RuneScape’s EULA stating virtual currency has no real-world monetary value and isn’t the player’s private property.

With that question settled for this case, prosecutors can now move forward. Beyond RuneScape, the decision could matter for other games where virtual currency or items are bought and sold on third-party markets, especially if courts start treating those assets more like real-world property than “just data.”