A UK court has ordered aneBay scammerto pay back over £100,000
to people that he duped into buying defective electronic
goods.
Jonathan Hartley, who was jailed last year for 18 months for
fraud, was yesterday ordered by the Preston Crown Court to pay
£102,000 compensation to victims or face an extra 12 months behind
bars.
Hartley, who made more than £140,000 from selling defective
goods through the
online auction site eBay, was arrested after Lancashire police
investigated complaints from several countries.
It took police
nine months to track down Hartley to Nelson in Lancashire. He
had worked through several accomplices using 11 eBay accounts.
Police said this case should send out a clear warning to other
people involved in similar scams that they will be brought to
justice and stripped of their gains, according to local news site
Pendle Today.
An eBay spokesman said buyers should use a
PayPal account to help protect them from losing money to
scammers like Hartley.
eBay has been locked in a long-running
battle with luxury goods makers which accuse the auction site
of failing to stop the sale of counterfeit goods.
A French court last week ordered eBay to
collaborate on halting counterfeit sales with L'Oreal, one of
several luxury brands to tackle eBay in the courts on the
issue.