The boss of a payday loans company hired computer hackers to try to sabotage a consumer rights website after it had carried customers’ complaints about his business.

James Frazer-Mann, 35, was tracked down by the FBI after he paid American hackers to launch an attack on the Consumer Action Group (CAG) website.

Cardiff crown court heard Frazer-Mann, the owner of Elite Loans, also paid hackers to target websites of rival payday loan companies.

Frazer-Mann, of Barry, South Wales, was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and told to pay £530 in costs after admitting five charges of commissioning hacks.

The court was told that Frazer-Mann contacted hackers after being criticised on the CAG website, a UK forum for the discussion of consumer rights.

One comment relating to Frazer-Mann’s firm read: “These companies are preying on people already in a vulnerable position and making life harder, they should be shut down!!!”

Frazer-Mann tracked down hackers on an online forum about hacking and paid one to try to take the website down, though it did not work.

He also paid £2,000 to hackers to mount cyber-attacks against the websites of competitors. They used a tactic called distributed denial of service, which typically involves flooding the target with superfluous requests in an attempt to overload their systems.

James Davies, for the prosecution, said: “The effects of such attacks are significant as the companies are so reliant on their websites to generate business.”

The court was told Frazer-Mann used the Liberty Reserve payment system, based in Costa Rica, which allowed users to transfer money by giving a name, date of birth and email address.

It was shut down by the US government in May 2013 amid fears it was being used by criminals. During its investigation into the system, the FBI came across Frazer-Mann’s dealings with hackers and contacted officers in the UK.

The businessman’s home was raided and his computer equipment seized.

Davies said: “He claims his company had initially been targeted by other companies. It’s an area of business which is highly competitive and some use unethical practices. He said he lost £1,000 a day when his website was targeted.”

Ben Douglas-Jones, for the defence, told the court the consumer site had detailed the married businessman’s personal information, and encouraged users to contact him.

Douglas-Jones added: “There’s a low risk of him committing further offences of this nature. He’s now working as a carpet cleaner.” The court heard Elite Loans has since stopped operating.

The recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees, told the businessman: “Over a period of two years you resorted through revenge to try and disrupt websites. You were prepared to spend quite considerable amounts of money to achieve this end.”

After the hearing, CAG’s founder, Marc Gander, said: “This shows the lengths these payday loans companies will go to in a bid to silence their critics. He was upset and contacted a hacker in the US. But it was a very stupid thing to do and it failed to work.”

Gander said his free website had 350,000 members who share consumer advice.