A FRAUDSTER who netted £38,500 in three weeks in an eBay scam has been jailed for two years and eight months.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Shumon Ullah, 24, had built up status on the auction website by selling moderately priced goods.

He then used his former next door neighbour’s details to set up the scam, offering high value electrical equipment worth almost £230,000 for sale. But the goods were never delivered.

When negative feedback from unhappy buyers began to appear on the website, he responded with abuse and claimed he was bankrupt, although he had a healthy bank account.

Customers called the police, who carried out exhaustive investigations to prove the defendant was the conman, the hearing was told.

The defendant, of Top Barn Lane, Newchurch, had earlier admitted 24 counts of fraud in September 2007.

Sentencing him, Recorder David Heaton, QC, said he had breached his customers’ trust and the penalty was meant to punish him and deter others.

The judge said: “It seems to me the police carried out a very comprehensive, time-consuming and no doubt expensive operation.”

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosec-uting, told the court the defendant had built up status on eBay as a reliable trader and then began to “break out” and offer high-priced goods such as televisions and cameras, and in one case, a range cooker, with no intention of delivering them.

Payment was directed to his own bank account rather than using PayPal because under PayPal there is a guarantee of money back on non-delivery.

Mr Grout-Smith said on September 8, 2007, Ullah changed his details on his eBay account, making his address that of a former next door neighbour in Rossendale.

The neighbour had absolutely nothing to do with the fraud.

The prosecutor said £38,500 was paid out in a very short period of time into the defendant’s bank account and customers got nothing in return.

The defendant had seven previous convictions.