Hundreds tricked out of cash in website con

Three Staffordshire men have been sentenced for their part in a major internet fraud which conned more than 300 people out of money.

Adam Brunt, aged 24, of Ponsefield Road, Richard Holland, 32, of Barn Close, and Andrew Johnstone, 24, of Windmill Lane, all Lichfield, had all admitted money laundering charges.

The three appeared at Burton-upon-Trent Magistrates Court for their part in a deception in which victims were tricked into paying for goods which they never received.

These included iPhones, iPads and other electronic items. Emma Thompson, prosecuting, said Holland had made £1,740 by conning six victims, Johnstone £1,310 from five people and Brunt £2,580.

The court heard that the men were part of a large-scale fraud operation which had taken place during a 12- month period affecting more than 300 people.

The three were advertising goods on the Gumtree website – a classified advert site – and taking people's money for items that did not exist.

John McGregor, defending, said the men were at the "bottom end scale" of a much larger fraud operation, keeping 50 per cent of the money they made and passing on the rest to someone higher up in the crime chain.

He said: "The chap at the top of the pyramid would approach others, who are vulnerable, and ask them to take part."

Mr McGregor said the men were "not the brains" behind the operation and they should have realised they would get caught as they were using their real names and addresses and their own bank accounts.

He added: "I suppose you have got to say they are hardly sophisticated."

Chief magistrate Ann Authers gave the three men 12-month suspended community orders and ordered each to pay £85 costs.

Brunt was told he would need to enter a skills accredited programme, Johnstone was told he would have to enter a "low intensity" drug rehabilitation programme and Holland was told he would have to complete a "medium intensity" drug programme.

Arrests are still being made as part the Staffordshire Police inquiry, Miss Thompson told the court.