In what is perceived as a major victory against electronic crime, police have located a British man living in Crete who had allegedly attempted to blackmail a UK insurance company by threatening to target its website and computer systems.

The 54-year-old man, living in Siteia, eastern Crete, was located by local police after being informed by Scotland Yard that e-mails concerning the attempted extortion of the company were coming from Greece.

The British citizen, who is a computer scientist, had allegedly demanded 60,000 pounds, threatening otherwise to put his plan into action.

The UK firm originally ignored the messages only to find its share price on the company website had been lowered, creating confusion among investors.

At the same time, the computer scientist placed notices on the website saying that some of its staff had been accused of fraud and that the firm had decided to stop doing business with Muslims in the wake of the recent London attacks.

The man was not arrested, but Greek authorities, who seized computers and hard disks from his home, are soon expected to extradite him to the UK.