Twenty year old Timothy Franklyn decided to fund his drug addiction by selling fake holiday vouchers supposedly worth £1000 on eBay. Typical in such cases after pleading guilty to eight charges of deception he coughed up to another thirteen which he asked the court to consider (I always imagine the cops at the back of the court furiously scribbling down all the ones they missed so that they can close their files on other complaints!).
Significantly it was not only the winners of auctions that he defrauded, he contacting unsuccessful bidders with fake second chance offers which reinforces the legitimacy of eBay’s decision to hide user ID’s with the Safeguarding Members’ IDs Policy.
Franklyn blames drug pushers for his problems, having got him hooked on cocaine they then told him how to misuse eBay so that he could pay them for his drugs. Thankfully the judge presiding over the case saw fit to place a £13,163 proceeds of crime order on Franklyn. When he’s released from custody he’ll have to repay that amount from assetts or future earnings!
