Trade Me cheat given community service

A Trade Me cheat was today sentenced to 180 hours community work and ordered to pay $881 back to the online customers he deceived.

"Behaviour like this brings the method of selling by internet into disrepute," said Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber when the 44-year-old unemployed man pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining by deception.

He gave Gyorgy Sandor Temesvari a final warning: "It if happens again -- jail."

Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Brocas told the court that on July 25 last year, Temesvari conducted an auction on Trade Me for two Waterford pens which sold for $66.

The money was paid into his bank account but the pens never arrived.

On September 20, Temesvari sold a World War 1 Austrian helmet on-line for $810.

Again, the money was deposited but the helmet did not arrive. "It must have got lost in the post," Temesvari explained. However, he pleaded guilty to both charges today.

"He realises that what he did was wrong," defence counsel James Rapley said.

Judge Erber noted that Hungarian-born Temesvari had already served a sentence of community work for a charge involving dishonesty last year.

- NZPA