Conman duped customers by claiming to sell iPads

A serial conman who set up two fake ebay accounts claiming to sell iPads for bargain prices to dupe unsuspecting customers who never received their goods has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Car sales businessman Gregory Homer ran a "sophisticated" operation from his house in Willenhall Road, Wolverhampton, and pocketed £800 from the racket.

But he was spared an immediate prison sentence by magistrates after they heard his wife was terminally ill with cancer and that he committed the crimes to pay rent on his house.

He was instead handed a six-month suspended jail term and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.

Prosecutor Miss Pushpa Sheemar told Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday that Homer's operation had only been uncovered when disgruntled customer Craig

Jones, who paid £450 for his intended purchase, had headed round to the defendant's house to confront him and caused a scene which was attended by police.

Officers were already investigating a similar claim by barrister Richard Nall-Cain, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, who had paid Homer £350 for an iPad 2 for his daughter Claire, the court was told.

But magistrates heard neither of the two victims received their goods despite receiving text messages from Homer explaining they had been sent.

Magistrates heard Homer, aged 41, had received a suspended sentence in April 2010 for running a similar con selling iPhones via ebay.

Miss Jo Tait, for Homer, said her client had only committed the offences to pay rent on his home.

"He did not stand a chance of getting away with these offences," she added.

As well as a suspended prison term, Homer, who had earlier admitted two charges of fraud by false representation, was also given a two-year supervision order and told to pay back £500 each to Mr Jones and Mr Nall-Cain, as well as £85 in costs.

Chairman of the bench, Beryl Farrow, told Homer: "The offences are so serious that custody is the only suitable option.

"You are an educated man and these were sophisticated and pre-planned offences. You lured people in with phone calls.

"It was a breach of good faith and you used false identification not once but twice, which amounted to conning the public."