Cyber squatter steals from 'incompetent' Railtrack

A 21-year-old cyber squatter has bought the URL for the re-named Railtrack organisation from under the nose of the UK government.

With government incompetence never far from the UK public transport debate, the news will not improve the reputation of the embattled Transport Secretary Stephen Byers.

While the new organisation owns networkrail.com and networkrail.co.uk, it hadn't registered the .org suffix.

Web designer Richard Laverick yesterday heard Byers announce the new name for Railtrack on television news and promptly registered networkrail.org.uk.

Laverick admitted to the BBC in an interview that this is something he has done before in order to make a quick buck. He is said he hopes to siphon £1000 from Network Rail in exchange for the domain.

He told the BBC: "I thought: 'If this is what the railways are going to be called, I should buy this.' The temptation was too great not to...

"It's not a difficult process to sell it back, but at the same time, you would think they would have the commonsense to secure the name for themselves."

Transport Secretary Byers yesterday announced to the House of Commons that the government is to launch a £500m rescue package for Railtrack shareholders.