Paul Barrett, who runs a minibus hire company in Stanley, County Durham, faces a staggering £50,000 ($80,000) fine after becoming the first person in the country to be convicted of shill bidding on online auction site eBay. Under the ID paulthebusman he boosted the prices of goods ranging from a pie and pasty warmer to cars that he was selling on his other ID, shanconpaul. In cases where he inadvertently won the items in question he took the opportunity to leave himself positive feedback. Rather cheeky.
Whilst I’d by no means condone the ungentlemanly practice of bidding on one’s own items, I do nonetheless have sympathies for Mr Barrett. Most people are unlikely to have ever heard of the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 let alone know what’s contained within its pages. Were it not for this document, Mr Barrett wouldn’t be looking at £5,000 for each of the ten offences he’s been convicted of. Alas, such is the upside down nature of British law – assuredly he’d have fared far better if he’d actually committed a real crime . . . .
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You nicked my picture
Should had fined ebay £500,000 and paul a lot less
Good news that the trading standards made it’s first conviction against Paul Barrett for shill
bidding on ebay and to think it only took them 12 years so you never know they might just manage
one fraud conviction this year and this makes you ask what are we paying taxes when the trading
standards provides is allowed to provide such a poor level of service.
eBuster has been asked to find members of the public that live in the UK and
who would like to take part in a live debate with ebay about shill bidding and can be
contacted on the ‘Contact us’ page on eBuster,co,uk
Guilty