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COLTRANE
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| Joined: | Wednesday June 2nd, 2004 |
| Location: | Virtualcity |
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Posted: Tuesday October 12th, 2004 08:10 |
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Victims taunted as youngster's lifestyle grew ever more opulent
Steven Morris
Tuesday October 12, 2004
The Guardian
Eyebrows were raised when a 16-year-old from a suburban estate in Pontypool hired stretch limousines to take his friends on a night out and popped off to New York for a weekend.
Neighbours wondered if the boy's parents had won the lottery, or inherited a large sum. In fact the teenager topped up his pocket money to the tune of £45,000 by preying on unsuspecting bargain hunters on the internet auction site eBay.
He offered non-existent electrical items for sale on the site and squirrelled some of the money buyers handed over into his several bank accounts, splashing the rest of it on his lavish lifestyle.
One victim is believed to have been cheated out of around £2,500, and in all it is thought that the boy struck more than 100 times. He even taunted some of his victims, contacting them to tell them how he had frittered their money away.
The teenager, who is now 17 and cannot be identified, admitted 21 charges of fraud when he appeared at Cwmbran youth court in south Wales, and asked for another 64 charges to be taken into consideration. He will be sentenced at Newport crown court later this month.
The boy's activities first surfaced in October last year when a customer complained that he had not received the goods he had paid for. The teenager was traced and the matter was settled out of court.
Further complaints began to trickle into eBay and the police were called in. When officers searched the boy's bedroom in January this year they found designer clothes, expensive gadgets and sophisticated computer equipment.
Although he was put on police bail, he continued to try to con eBay users. He was arrested again in April, but still could not resist going back on to the site. He was finally given bail only on condition that he did not use the internet.
Paul Moore, prosecuting, told the youth court on Friday that the boy said he was "addicted" to the site. "It gave him a buzz," he said.
Mr Moore said the teenager advertised a range of electrical items on the site.
"Items listed for sale have never been in his possession," he said.
When the police investigated the boy's finances, they found he had set up three bank accounts to look after his takings.
The case is embarrassing for eBay, which declares itself a "safe place to buy and sell" and employs more than 1,000 people in customer service and its investigation unit. A former Scotland Yard officer acts as a liaison point between the company and the police.
The Pontypool case prompted a wide-ranging review of the site's safety procedures, but questions still remain about why a boy of 16 was able to sell on the site - supposedly open only to those over 18 - and how he was able to keep his con going for so long after he was first caught.
Certainly the size of the site, with more than 10m items for sale at any one time, makes it a challenging place to police.
Last night eBay refused to discuss the case, saying that it was not right to do so given the age of the defendant and the fact that he had yet to be sentenced. It would only say: "We are happy that the police managed to track him down and bring him to justice."
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“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.� -Malcolm X
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DS
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| Joined: | Wednesday November 12th, 2003 |
| Location: | LONDON, United Kingdom |
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Posted: Tuesday October 19th, 2004 20:55 |
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| Not bloomin' surprising...I bet there's another 100 people lined up behind him!!
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