[Hampshire] Old cable modem for recycling

Hi all

This is borne more out of knowledge of ntl/Virgin incompetence rather than my own paranoia.

When I lived in Hampshire I had broadband through a CM I bought in 2000. For various reasons when I moved away from Hampshire, I closed the ntl account rather than just had it moved. My new broadband is provided by virgin with a brand new account number and new cm. FWIW I've plugged the old CM into my cable socket and I don't have 4 solid lights so I'm assuming it's been "unpaired" i.e. it's all one network right? I'm assuming any cm that's been paired can be plugged into any cable point and it will work - again is this right? Or are they registered with the local UBR?

Reason I ask is I'm thinking of freecycling the old cm. If I can't be 100% sure it's been "unpaired" - could someone clever enough get it working and have it steal my old account to get bandwidth therefore ntl might come chasing me for money from an account that's been closed for years!

I know it might sound like paranoia (and perhaps it is) but let's be fair - we've all heard / seen just how incompetent ntl (and now virgin) can be.

Cheers
Rob