Notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick was ordered last week to pay $4,125 to the hightech companies he victimised, a sum that the judge described as a "token" amount as she completed the last sentencing detail in one of the most publicised computer crime cases in history.

Mitnick, a San Fernando Valley native who led the FBI on a two-year chase in the early 1990s, was also formally sentenced to 46 months in prison by Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The length of the sentence reflected a plea agreement Mitnick reached with prosecutors last spring. Accounting for time served, the 37-year-old hacker could be released in January, nearly five years after his dramatic capture in a North Carolina apartment. "We're very happy that this chapter in our lives is over," said Alan Mitnick, Kevin's father, who called the small restitution imposed a major win.

The figure was far short of the $1.5 million federal prosecutors sought, let alone the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages claimed by the many companies he victimised, including such high-tech giants as Sun Microsystems and Novell.

Chris Painter, a federal prosecutor in the case, acknowledged disappointment but said the sentence represents "an appropriate and fair conclusion of the case." Pfaelzer said she would have liked to impose a "much, much larger" restitution order but did not believe Mitnick would be able to pay more. Prosecutors said the $4,125 represents a 15 per cent garnishment of what Mitnick might earn in a minimum-wage job during his three-year supervised release after his sentence is completed.

Mitnick's attorney, Don Randolph, has argued that his client's earning potential will be constrained for years by the terms of the plea agreement. In fact, the judge spent several minutes outlining those restrictions, listing all of the devices - from PCs to cellular phones - that Mitnick will not be allowed to use while on probation.

Mitnick appears not to have profited from his hacking but seems to have taken great satisfaction in the technical challenge of penetrating computer systems. He became an underground icon over the course of a career that spans two decades. Several books have been written about his case, and a film based on his capture by the FBI is due this year. But Mitnick did not take part in the project and is prohibited from profiting from his story for seven years.