Ashley Mitchell, a UK-based IT hacker, is facing inevitable jail-term after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than £7.4 million worth of virtual currency from online games firm Zynga. 
 
Twenty-nine-year-old Mitchell, who previously worked for Torbay Council, was remanded into custody on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to five charges in Exeter Crown Court. 
 
The hacker gained access to Zynga's system by posing as a site administrator of the online games firm. He transferred gaming chips worth 400 billion into his fake Facebook accounts. 
 
Mitchell managed to sell off nearly a third of the total stolen booty for around £53,000. He would have pocked around £184,000 if he had managed to sell the rest of the virtual currency.
 
Mitchell said he resorted to hacking following his obsession with online gaming and Zynga's poker game in particular. 
 
Zynga said it alarmed after noticing the huge amount of chips going missing. The fim then set up a sting to catch the thief. 
 
Sentence will be pronounced sometime in next month.