Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

Peter Shepherd pleaded guilty to eBay scam charges claiming that a drug he took for Parkinson?s disease severally altered his personality and made him unable to discern right from wrong.

Shepherd, age 59, worked for many years as an IT manager with a ?50,000 salary before he retired and started taking the drug Cabergoline seven years ago.

According to Shepherd, once he began taking the drug his personality was altered and he began to exhibit weird behavioural habits such as violence towards his second wife, a cross dressing habit, and accumulating a massive amount of debts.

Over the last few years, Shepherd was living the highlife buying many new vehicles, running up ?150,000 in credit card debt, and taking a Caribbean cruise.

It was due to his spending habits, he claimed in front of Hull Crown Court, that he began an eBay ticket scam selling fake tickets to the Take That and Donny Osmond concert series that after people purchased were never received.

He was able to carry on the scam unscathed for 11 months convincing 172 people to buy ?45,718 worth of tickets that they never saw.
Defending James Sampson stated that while the case is odd, it is not unheard of for those who suffer from Parkinson?s disease.

He went on to say that while the drug helped increase Shepherd?s mobility, it had a serious side effect on his behaviour. Outside of spending Shepherd entertained thoughts of suicide, marital aggression, and violence.

Shepherd entered a plea of guilty to six different counts of fraud for the ticket scam, after which he was issued a conditional discharge due to his altered mental state. His wife was given a year-long supervision order along with 100 hours of unpaid work.

Filed under: Broadband Scam Alerts by Alan

Shumon Ullah was sentenced to jail for two years and eight months after Burnley Court heard his money making scheme which involved offing electrical equipment that was valued at 230,000 pounds for sale on the auction site but not delivering any goods once they sold.

When he started to get negative feedback, he simply turned to his neighbour?s details and continued forward with the fraudulent sales.

When unhappy buyers started to complain that they had not receive their purchases, Ullah responded with abuse filled comments stating that he was bankrupt and could not reimburse them despite the fact that the opposite was actually true. Eventually, disatisfied customers called on the police for aid who preformed a thorough investigation that proved Shumon Ullah was behind the scam.

The defendant, who is from Newchurch; previously pled guilty to 24 counts of fraud back in September of 2007. Upon sentencing Recorder David Heaton stated that the sentence of jail time was meant to punish him for deceiving his customers and to deter others who might have the same type of ideas. The judge went on to state that Ullah no doubt cost the police since the investigation was expensive and time consuming.

Prosecutor in the case, Jeremy Grout-Smith states that Ullah was able to gain the trust of eBay consumers by selling a numerous amount of small items first which he delivered in a prompt manner. Once his ratings were up on the website and he had a reliable status as a trader, he begin to offer higher priced items that he obviously had no intention of ever delivering to buyers.

He only accepted payment to his own bank account because Paypal provides a money back guarantee for eBay purchasers if they do not receive a package from eBay.

Filed under: Broadband Scam Alerts by Alan