Serial eBay fraudster gets two years for £14,000 swindles
A serial internet fraudster was jailed for the second time yesterday after conning thousands of pounds from eBay customers. Phillip Shortman, a 20-year-old father of two from Cwmbran, Wales, made £14,200 in cash and goods after failing to post items he had "sold" under false names and not paying for parcels sent to him.
He was given a two-year sentence yesterday at Newport crown court after admitting five counts of deception and asking for a further 32 offences to be taken into account.
Shortman was sentenced to a year's detention in 2005 after swindling eBay users out of £45,000. In January he was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years. When he appeared in court in May for breaching that sentence, he was given a curfew order and told that it was his last chance to reform.
He was due to be sentenced last Friday for the new offences but he missed his court appearance because he was being interviewed by Dyfed Powys police about an offence committed this month. This involved the collection of a Vauxhall Astra from a man in Hay-on-Wye, mid Wales, who later found he would not receive the agreed £850 price because Shortman had used a false PayPal account.
The court heard that Shortman also failed to pay for a £250 laptop he ordered. When the seller got in touch to complain, Shortman responded by sending abusive emails to him.
Laurence Jones, defending, said Shortman was "obsessed" with defrauding customers of eBay.
Judge David Morris said: "Internet trading depends on trust and honesty. When those like you deceive purchasers and vendors over the internet, it strikes at the system as a whole and brings otherwise respectable trading institutions and individuals into overall disrepute."
For the five deception offences and the breach of his suspended sentence, Shortman received a total sentence of 24 months' detention in a young offenders' institution.
An eBay spokesman said the company was delighted by the sentence given to Shortman.
Helen Pidd
Wednesday August 22, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
A serial internet fraudster was jailed for the second time yesterday after conning thousands of pounds from eBay customers. Phillip Shortman, a 20-year-old father of two from Cwmbran, Wales, made £14,200 in cash and goods after failing to post items he had "sold" under false names and not paying for parcels sent to him.
He was given a two-year sentence yesterday at Newport crown court after admitting five counts of deception and asking for a further 32 offences to be taken into account.
Shortman was sentenced to a year's detention in 2005 after swindling eBay users out of £45,000. In January he was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years. When he appeared in court in May for breaching that sentence, he was given a curfew order and told that it was his last chance to reform.
He was due to be sentenced last Friday for the new offences but he missed his court appearance because he was being interviewed by Dyfed Powys police about an offence committed this month. This involved the collection of a Vauxhall Astra from a man in Hay-on-Wye, mid Wales, who later found he would not receive the agreed £850 price because Shortman had used a false PayPal account.
The court heard that Shortman also failed to pay for a £250 laptop he ordered. When the seller got in touch to complain, Shortman responded by sending abusive emails to him.
Laurence Jones, defending, said Shortman was "obsessed" with defrauding customers of eBay.
Judge David Morris said: "Internet trading depends on trust and honesty. When those like you deceive purchasers and vendors over the internet, it strikes at the system as a whole and brings otherwise respectable trading institutions and individuals into overall disrepute."
For the five deception offences and the breach of his suspended sentence, Shortman received a total sentence of 24 months' detention in a young offenders' institution.
An eBay spokesman said the company was delighted by the sentence given to Shortman.
Helen Pidd
Wednesday August 22, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
