Former acid house rave kingpin convicted in bizarre bank heist

After committing a bizarre bank heist involving a home-built machine, a former acid house rave organizer was sentenced to serve 20-months in jail, according to Naked Security.

53-year-old Tony Muldowney-Colston, also known as Tony Colston-Hayter, was charged in October for stealing £500,000 from bank accounts after convincing people that he was their banking provider, said the Metropolitan Police. He used a machine with a Barclays card reader mounted on crudely arranged electronic equipment. MSN said that the machine allowed him to convince the customers of his con, as it altered his voice and played pre-recorded bank messages. Authorities said there are hundreds of victims across the UK.

Muldowney-Colston has had his hand in many endeavors, including professional gambling and video game development, but he is largely known for organising raves in the countryside surrounding London after he was inspired by the iconic Shoom nightclub during the acid house era. He was known as acid house’s “Mr Big” and used creative ways to trick local authorities when organising his parties. With BT’s VoiceBank voice mailbox system, he would leave cryptic location details that allowed ravers to embark on somewhat of a treasure hunt to find the events.

Later he would help protest the government's anti-rave policies when he handcuffed himself to Jonathan Ross on live TV.

Following his time in the rave scene, Muldowney-Colston turned to a life of crime and was arrested for his part in a bank heist in 2014 where he helped steal £1.25m from credit accounts using high tech devices. He was later released on licence.

Now Muldowney-Colston has plead guilty to nine counts of possessing an article for use in fraud, and two counts of making or supplying an article for use in fraud and will serve 20-months.