Wigan eBay scammer must pay back £60,000 or face jail

A Wigan man who ran a phoney car accessories scam on eBay has been ordered to stump up more than £60,000 by the courts.

Ian Cronin was given a six-month suspended sentence a year ago after admitting to the online racket and was also made the subject of a 90-day curfew.

But now he has returned to Bolton Crown Court to be hit hard in the pocket too.

The 66-year-old of Wensley Road, Lowton, was the subject of a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing which heard that he had made tens of thousands of pounds from his illegal venture.

He had appeared before Wigan and Leigh magistrates a year ago to plead guilty to 18 charges of having items such as keyrings, dust cap tyre sets and number plate screw sets in packaging which bore a sign identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, a registered trade mark of vehicle manufacturers including Mercedes, Audi, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Volkswagen.

The hearing was told that in June 2018 Cronin went onto eBay with the seller identification “ian4550” to sell a Land Rover badge and plate screw set plus a Jaguar keyring then four days later put up for sale a Skoda dust cap tyre set.

The court heard that when the authorities pounced on November 11 that year, they found hundreds of vehicle badges, plate sets, tyre sets and keyrings.

the new hearing a confiscation order demanded Cronin pay £60,540.71. He has three months to do so. If not he will be sent to prison for eight months and at the end of his sentence will still owe the money.