The man, a technical manager for Nordex in the Netherlands, admitted setting up crypto miners at wind farms in Gieterveen and Waardpolder, according to The Register.

His crypto mining operation used both the electricity produced by the wind farms and Nordex’s network.

The side hustle ran without incident from 16 August to 22 November 2022 before being discovered by Nordex in the aftermath of an unrelated cyber attack.

The man, who has not been named, pleaded guilty to theft and unlawful access to Nordex’s network at a court in Assen.

He was sentenced to 120 hours’ community service and ordered to repay €4,155.65 plus interest to Nordex and the same sum to the state.