Jail for ebay fraudster

A conman who preyed on parents looking to find must-have Christmas presents for their children on internet auction site ebay has been locked up for his "clever and devious" fraud.

Black Country trickster Michael Ricketts used seven email addresses, three mobile phones and false names including Lloyd and Sylvester to con 11 buyers out of more than £4,000. The 35-year-old, who advertised fictitious Nintendo Wii game consoles, laptop computers, plasma-screen TVs and trampolines on ebay, appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

His wife blew him a kiss from the public gallery as he was jailed for a year by Judge Nicholas Webb.

The court heard how Ricketts, of Essex Avenue, Hateley Heath, West Bromwich, advertised the fictional goods on ebay but then convinced interested buyers to purchase them directly from him via classified advertising website, Gumtree, meaning they had no way of retrieving their money.

Miss Wendy Miller, prosecuting, said as soon as the money landed in Ricketts' bank account he would abandon his email address, phone number and fake identity and leave the customer high and dry.

Miss Miller said in the months leading up to New Year's Eve in 2007, the stepfather-of-three pocketed £4,033 and pretended to be from Newcastle, Stoke-on-Trent, Powis, Suffolk and Wednesbury.

Ricketts, who started the scam because he was out of work after losing his job at an electrical company in Darlaston, previously admitted 11 counts of fraud.

Mr Harbinder Lally, defending, said that Ricketts had succumbed to the pressures of looking after a family.

Mr Lally said he had now found work as a mechanic but accepted there was "no excuse of justification" for his actions.

Judge Webb said: "You conned 11 people out of just over £4,000. You did this by advertising on ebay goods which they wanted to buy just before Christmas.

"You failed to deliver the goods because they never existed, it was a scam from the beginning."

The judge said Ricketts had tarnished the good name of the websites and committed some of the offences while on police bail after being arrested on October 2 2007.