Nice of the Crown to think of the victims in this one, £927 set aside for them and the rest of the £102k goes to the State? Lovely......

Surely if he's made money by ripping people off, then the people he ripped off should be getting all of their money back. So why are the police/magistrates getting any of his "ill-gotten gains"???

£141,028.52 in ill-gotten gains, yet they can only find 34 victims to return £927.52 to?

If they have the eBay records they should be able to track down ALL of the defrauded eBayers.

Something somehwhere just doesn't add up ..... or maybe it does:

"Under the rules half of the rest of the money is split between the Crown Prosecution Service, the Magistrates' Court Service and the police"

So the less we return the more we get to keep!

They're already being funded by the taxpayer.

Presumably the 142 grand is the total amount he stole, thus it should all go to his victims.

The first dibs on the money should be those he scammed... not the fucking court system...sheesh

Every £100k Lancs Constabulary trawl in from felons is £100k less they'll siphon from my Council Tax next year - go get 'em Floyd!

he scammed people for 140K, 100K is being seized back and yet only 1K is being given back to the people he stole it from. Would the real scamers please stand up for a round of applause?

Well, yes, sir, the payout will be £900, but there are many other factors to be considered: window tax, swamp insurance, hen food, dog biscuits, cow ointment -- the expenses are endless.

it wasn't air he was selling it was fake goods.. which oddly still have a cost say 40k's worth...

I agree that the ebay records used to convict should Identify those to whom the money should be returned. it stinks!

So, you'll be jailed for selling Xbox 360s now?

"pheasant sandwiches with bread"

Got some of those on eBay - a wee bit too much bread for me.

But there again it doesn't need to.

The gov might just trurn around and say "Oh, I see Lancs Constabulary has obtained xk GBP and so-and-so obtained Yk GBP. We will drop your gov sourced funding by an equivalent amount.

.... for the coppers that is. I'm sure they have a little margin for profit in there after covering legal costs, businesses need to make a profit after all.

Why does the REG look more like Fark daily?

/Hammer Time

So we'll now see the Police vigorously pursuing lots of other cases like this because they get a cut of the wonga that the victims have had stolen from them?

What next? When you're burgled, they retrieve your property, but they'll get to keep your flat-screen TV...?

Camilla Smythe: "You people complaining about the relative split of recovered monies."

Yes, really! Apart from record company executives, who else is making 99% commission on anything? Not even eBay can manage that!

I don't deny that the plod probably put the hours in investigating the case, as did all the legal servants of Her Majesty, but I doubt that those scammed had zero investment in the time spent bringing about this outcome.

being convicted of a CRIMINAL offence doesn't entitle the victim to restitution - that would be up to each victim to take a CIVIL case themselves.

For better or worse its the way the legal system works, has done for some time and will continue to do whether you read about it on The Register or not.

AFAIK Barristers for the prosecution are all self employed, so is it better for the guilty party to pay their fees, or the taxpayer? I think the former personally.

The rest of the money probably went to the credit card companies.... who almost certainly will be the ones loosing out on this.

I know its hard to find sympathy for them but...

Hello. This is the police calling about the burglary. You've reported that someone stole all of your silverware and jewelry. Don't worry. We've apprehended the thief, and we'll return your property shortly. Minus our expenses of course... Here's your butter knife and an earring. Oh sorry, my mistake, can't let you keep the butter knife. Knives are too dangerous to be in the wrong hands!

@Death_Ninja CC companies sometimes profit from fraud

Can't really blame them for keeping something from this. I mean the people who got scammed are to blame themselves for being so easily scammed. At least they now are more wary of such future attempts hopefully and is a good lesson. If the scammer was not caught, they wouldn't have even gotten a dime back. Consider this work expense? The least the police could do is let everyone the guy scammed a shot at him for a bit of punishment shall we say. You can keep the money as payment for his punishment :D

These days, its so easy for people to scam and live lavishly in a hoboish state where they don't have to do anything at all to get cash from ads/scam/donations.

Sounds to me like the courts and police what locking up for theft, who do they think they are? politicians?!!!!!