eBay seller convicted of auction fixing

Paul Barrett from Yorkshire faces fines of up to 50,000 after being convicted of fixing auction listings on eBay.

After listing items under his seller's account 'shaconpaul', Barrett was discovered by North Yorkshire Trading Standards to be upping the bids on these items under a separate account, 'paulthebusman'.

This practice is known as 'shill bidding' and is banned by eBay. It has already led to prosecutions in the US but Barrett is the first to be convicted of the offence in the UK.

The shill bidding only came to light after a complaint was made against minibus-hire company owner Barrett.

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The complaint claimed Barrett had sold a minibus that had its mileage reduced illegally. This led to North Yorkshire Trading Standards looking into his account.

eBay invest over 6million each year in technology to detect shill bidding. Vanessa Canzini from eBay told Web User: "We are extremely pleased to learn of the conviction of Paul Barrett. Shill bidding is illegal and it is important for people to understand that there is not, nor has there ever been, room for illegal activity on our site.

"This acts as a strong deterrent to the small minority who attempt to use our site inappropriately but, more than this, it helps us to work with law enforcement agencies to secure successful prosecutions if anyone decides to try their luck." she continued.

Barrett was convicted last week of 10 offences under consumer protection laws and each offence could carry a 5,000 fine.

Speaking at the Magistrates court, Barrett said: "I realised the price was too low on some things and put the prices up using the second account. I've never been in trouble before and would like to apologise."

He is due to be sentenced after the case is sent to Crown Court.