York eBay fraudster netted £12,000 (From York Press)

York eBay fraudster netted £12,000

3:40pm Friday 14th November 2008 in

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A PART-TIME estate agent and eBay fraudster peddled pirate goods for six months despite being closed down twice, York Crown Court heard.

Spencer Scott Martin, 33, involved his elderly parents, Irene and Anthony, as he evaded the auction website’s security measures, said Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting.

His pirate deals netted him more than £12,000.

“It was quite a professional enterprise,” said Recorder Tom Bayliss QC.

“These offences undermine reputable companies and defraud the public.”

He gave Martin a community order with 120 hours’ unpaid work.

York Trading Standards, who prosecuted Martin, hope to confiscate his illegal gains at a hearing next year.

Martin, of Upper St Paul’s Terrace, Holgate, York, pleaded guilty to two offences of selling goods with false trademarks and asked for 324 similar offences to be taken into account.

Miss Sherwin said Martin started his eBay business under the name homeithelp, selling iPods and similar goods, and branched out into clothing.

He also set up his own website, storebliss.com, with adverts on eBay claiming that he was actively against pirated goods.

In January 2007, because of worries that he was selling counterfeit goods and sometimes not delivering any goods at all, eBay closed down his account and blocked him from using his name, address or bank account.

So he took over his 64-year-old mother Irene’s eBay account, called onemollymoo.

He got his 65-year-old father, Anthony, to funnel customer payments from his parents’ bank account to his own.

In mid-2007, trading standards officers made test purchases of an Abercrombie and Finch designer shirt and designer shorts from the same manufacturer.

Both were fake. They tried to buy a Juicy Couture tracksuit, but Martin never sent it.

On August 16, eBay suspended the onemollymoo account.

Martin then set up musthavetrainers, specialising in footwear.

Interviewed by trading standards officers, he claimed he believed his clothing was genuine.

“Given the background and the warning shots the defendant had received, he seems to have been wilfully blind,” said Miss Sherwin.

For Martin, Charlotte Worsley said the offences were out of character.

He was deeply ashamed and apologised for his actions.

* Trading Standards and police raided Martin’s parents’ home in Sutton-on-the-Forest and charged them with being part of the eBay fraud.

But charges against both were dropped at York magistrates.