Some would consider the title The Most Dangerous Man in Britain rather flattering. Gabe Parker doesn't think so, and he should know... In the late sixties, Gabe Parker allowed his mind to wander from the job in hand which was chasing up computer components for the firm Elliot Automation. He realised that very little thought had been given to the problems of computer sabotage. "I was surprised about this. So I put my 'crooked' hat on and thought, 'Mmm - there's possibilities here - just for the fun of it." At some point, Gabe thinks he must have mentioned to the firm's public relations people the awful possibilities of computer fraud. The next thing he knew, he was on the Today programme talking to Jack de Manio about breaking into computers, shifting money around, and no-one any the wiser! The spotlight of fame, or infamy, shone bright on Gabe. One appearance led to others, most notably on Tomorrow's World. In front of amazed presenter, James Burke, Gabe demonstrated the relative simplicity of shifting £35,000 from one acount to another and, then, to get the computer to issue a cheque for that amount.
"I was never prepared for this - or such a reaction from the BBC. You only read about the BBC in the Radio Times, and here they were ringing up for opinions and to appear on radio programmes, and then television!"
Asked if he felt he was qualified to talk about such a subject, Gabe answers, "Only in the sense that there was non-one else thinking about it let alone talking about. There was no-one really to question what I was saying - everything I said was accepted."
Still the ball of fame continued to roll. Gabe took part in a programme called The Burke Special, in which he was shown illegally gaining access (this was before the word 'hacking' was used)to the Inland Revenue computer. The following day there were questions in the House of Commons. "Jeremy Thorpe," recalls Gabe, "asked the question, 'What if Gabe Parker was walking down Whitehall with the means of getting into anybody's computer? Is he the most dangerous man in Britain?'"
This brought Gabe up short. Several decades later, Gabe still sounds appalled at the title, "I thought, who are they talking about! To be labelled the Most Dangerous Man in Britain - it's getting way out of hand." But still Gabe continued to move in more and more exhalted company on both sides of the Atlantic, until, he says "I became scared. I wasn't in charge or control of any of my fifteen minutes of fame."
At this time, Gabe was also diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, spending a short time in a wheelchair. "I felt that this was a warning that what I was doing with my mind and body, wasn't on!" He took a hard look at what was important to him in life, and withdrew from the media spotlight.
It does beg the question though, why contact Home Truths? "I suppose," he says, "I've got something to say now, and I also know how not to answer any more questions!"
