Thief arrested after selling stolen car parts online
High-visibility patrols have been increased at Milton Keynes Central railway station after a man who stole vehicle parts from the station car park was fined.
A quick-witted car owner found the thief selling his own stolen valance on an internet auction site and alerted British Transport Police (BTP) officers, who quickly arrested him and launched an investigation.
Adam Jones, 21, of Cromwell Avenue, Newport Pagnell, was fined after being convicted of two counts of theft from a motor vehicle in May and June this year.
He was fined £55 for each offence and ordered to pay £85 costs when sentenced at Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court on Friday, August 17.
The court heard how he would enter the multi-storey car park on Eldergate and remove vehicle parts including rear grills, light covers and valance panels.
He would then later put them online in a bid to make money from his crimes. One of the victims searching the online marketplace discovered a valance Jones had put online and bought it for £22.21.
When he collected it and tried to fit it to his own vehicle, he discovered it was the very car part that had been stolen from him in the first place.
BTP officers were informed and Jones was swiftly arrested on suspicion of theft and later charged with two offences.
Inspector Neil Ketley, based at Milton Keynes BTP police station, said: “This conviction shows that those who think they can get away with stealing parts from people’s vehicles will not be tolerated.
“Patrols have since been stepped up by BTP officers at the station and around the car park, as well as online, and if anyone else is thinking about doing something similar let this be a warning that we will track you down and do everything we can to bring you to justice.”
A London Midland spokesman said: "We are pleased that this offender has been brought to justice. We will continue to maintain security in the car park with current measures, which include hourly checks and undercover operations, to ensure that passengers can continue to park their vehicles there in confidence."
If you think you have been a victim of theft, or have any information into thefts from the area, please contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40. Information can also be passed to the independent charity, Crimestoppers, on 0800 555 111
mk-news

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A large percentage of what is sold on Ebay is stolen. You only have to look for certains brands like Marks and Spencer to see dozens BNWT boxes of underwear and other small items. Current stock being sold at a fraction of the store price. I would say about 1/3 of what is sold on Ebay is genuine and the other 2/3rds is stolen counterfeit or dodgy in some way.

I dont worry with small purchases but when a significant amount of money is involved I scrutinise past feedback both left for others and received.

Last week when I was looking to buy a Smart car I came across two that I was interested in. The first claimed that the car was much loved and being sold due to a change in job. When I checked the feedback it turned out that the seller had only owned the car for 4 weeks and the previous seller had sold the much loved car it due to changing jobs.What an incredible coincidence!

Then I saw another one and this one was even worse. It made a big deal about having full service history and one of the previous purchases that the seller had made was a brand new, unused Smart car service book. Just waiting to be filled with fake service stamps no doubt.

And thats why I refuse to ever use Ebay, if i pay a little more I don't mind as long as i'm not funding some little scrote's one man crime wave

Wouldn't it be nice to think that the police were keeping a team monitoring ebay - or am I being impossibly optimistic?

pooroldcodger said:

Wouldn't it be nice to think that the police were keeping a team monitoring ebay - or am I being impossibly optimistic?

Click to expand...

I started this thread...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1049731&mid=152801&nmt=Ringing+kits+for+sale+on+ebay%2E%2E%2ENo+not+on+our+watch%21

...on a more generic motoring forum to alert people to vehicle identities being sold on eBay with the sole purpose of either changing the identity of a stolen vehicle or to add an identity to age a non-tax exempt vehicle, write off or kit car (to try and avoid the IVA).

When one turned up local to me I forwarded the details to the Police who promptly did absolutely nothing.

The trouble is at any one time there are over ten million items for sale on eBay UK alone. There is a department of the Trading Standards Office who monitor auction type sales site like eBay, Amazon and even Bumble Bee (the Police auction site) and they only have the power to check items that have been mentioned to them and can not browse such sites without some kind of warrant. Ebay's privacy policy dictates that the for the Police to use information from their site they need express permission and that is near impossible to come by so it's rare in cases of stolen goods (or looted goods after last years riots) to be recovered without a member of the public making a complaint, the Police follow it up, issue a warrant to eBay and the CPS use the evidence gathered (provided eBay haven't removed the items before the Police/CPS can get this evidence in the interests of good press).

Carrots