Boy made £45,000 in bogus eBay deals

A TEENAGER swindled more than £45,000 by selling non-existent goods on eBay. Phillip Shortman, who was 17 at the time, used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle - hiring limousines, jetting off on holidays and splashing out on designer clothes and gadgets.

He did little, however, to cover his tracks, a court heard. He sometimes used his real name to register as a seller on the internet auction site and asked customers to pay with cheques made out in his name.

When they complained they had not received the goods, he taunted them by saying it was his business to make fools out of people.

Shortman - who turned 18 this week - was sentenced to 12 months in a youth detention centre yesterday after admitting 21 counts of obtaining property by deception.

He asked for a further 63 to be taken into consideration. In total, police think he conned £45,570 out of online shoppers. Shortman ran the racket from his parents' home in Pontypool, South Wales, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

He began by advertising cheap mobile phones for sale on eBay, then progressed to cameras, camcorders and other electrical equipment. Usually he would ask for cash or cheques made out in his name to be paid into one of three bank accounts.

But the court heard that Shortman - who was expelled from school without any qualifications - never had the items to sell. It was simply a ruse to obtain cash to spend on computer equipment, flat-screen TVs and even a quad bike. The teenager, who dressed in expensive designer clothes, also flew friends to New York and enjoyed a helicopter ride over Manhattan.

More than 100 shoppers were duped. But by the time he was arrested Shortman had just £615 left. While on bail officers warned him not to use eBay again but he continued his scam.

Judge Roderick Denyer, QC, who lifted an order banning Shortman's identification, ordered him to undergo training to deal with his behaviour. He told Shortman: 'You were a persistent offender and ignored a warning to stop this criminal conduct. The public are entitled to protection from someone such as yourself.' Lawrence Jones, defending, said Shortman was looking to start afresh.

His fraud has raised questions over the security of purchases on eBay, which has 135m users around the world. The site insists, however, that had those who bought goods from Shortman followed simple precautions, they might not have been conned.

For example, users can check a seller's trustworthiness by reading feedback on the site from previous customers. Garreth Griffith, eBay's head of trust and safety, said: 'Imagine you are not on the internet but are in a pub and some guy says to you, 'I've got a laptop around the corner. Give me £1,500 in cash and I promise I'll go and get it.' You're not going to believe it for a second. That is exactly the equivalent on the internet.'

He advised buyers to use credit cards which protect against fraudulent transactions or PayPal, a scheme allowing registered users to make a secure credit card payment via the internet.