It sounds like something out of a TV show, but the UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency is suggesting that imprisoned crime bosses are using PlayStation 3 systems to run their evil empires from behind bars. Yes, apparently you can play Warhawk and get Freddy the Finger to whack Jimmy Blueballs at the same time. Gangsters have pro skills.

"We know that one of the issues is that if you are locked up, how do you communicate with others? And we have been highlighting the fact it is not always with mobile telephones," claims SOCA director-general Bill Hughes. "There is other technology used -- people are using PlayStations to charge their mobile phones and are playing games interactively with others, so are able to communicate with them."

I'd be concerned that hardened criminals are being allowed to play the latest videogames in the first place, never mind that they're still running their empires with them. I just never got this whole idea that prisoners should be allowed games consoles when law-abiding people have to pay for them. Nevertheless, the UK's Prison Service denies that online-capable consoles like PS3s and 360s are allowed in prisons, despite SOCA's accusations.

"A decision was taken some years ago that the then-current generation of games consoles should be barred because the capability to send or receive radio signals is an integral part of the equipment," claims the Prison Service. SOCA is monitoring 5000 prisons in the UK and abroad, although it has not provided details of any evidence regarding its claims.

Just be careful about who you humiliate in your next round of Killzone 2. You never know what kind of revenge might be headed your way.