Laptop seller gets year in jail for phantom sales

Selling, but never delivering, several laptop computers on internet auction sites TradeMe and eBay this year has landed 20-year-old Napier man Michael Shaw in jail.

Judge Phillip Connell said TradeMe did not need crooks like Shaw abusing the system, and sentenced him to 12 months' jail.

In the Napier District Court, he gave Shaw leave to apply for home detention, but did not defer his sentence.

Shaw had earlier pleaded guilty to a string of fraud offences that began when he offered three non-existent laptop computers for sale on TradeMe in January.

Three people, from Wanganui, Wellington and Auckland, paid Shaw money for the laptops.

He then went to ground, never delivering the advertised computers.

While on bail for the first offence he moved on to international fraud, selling several of the 22 laptops he offered for sale on American site eBay to people overseas.

These laptops never existed either.

TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said it was not difficult for the company's fraud team to find Shaw.

Acting on information supplied by TradeMe, Napier police seized Shaw's computer and he pleaded guilty to using a document to defraud.

Shaw is the first person to be successfully prosecuted since TradeMe restricted access to its service at the end of last year, allowing only New Zealanders (or Australians with a New Zealand bank account) to sell goods on the website.

"This case is evidence that people are no longer anonymous on the internet," said Mr O'Donnell.

Judge Connell said it was relatively easy to register on TradeMe, but this was not a criticism of the system. Shaw made sure he was the top bidder for one of the items he had advertised, to gain a good sales record.

He indicated that he wanted to work to pay the reparation he owed - $3660 for the first round of offending and $6592.70 for the second.

- NZPA