David Levi, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and was given a 4-year sentence (he is already in prison for drug offences); his brother, Guy, of St Anne's, Lancs, was gaoled for 21 months after admitting conspiracy to defraud. Daniel Lett, of St Anne's Road, Lytham, was given a two-year sentence after admitting conspiracy to defraud. Four men who allowed their bank accounts to be used were each given six months.

The total sum detailed in the charges was £197,909.47; but police believe the real amount stolen was closer to GBP0.5m.

Victims' addresses were 'harvested' with a program called Atomic Harvester. Levi and his gang then sent e-mails purporting to come from the e-Bay auction site itself. More than 2,000 usernames and passwords and sometimes bank account details were supplied. The gang then hijacked the user accounts of eBay sellers who had positive feedback ratings on the auction site, offering Sony Vaio laptops and Rolex watches at bargain prices. Buyers were then persuaded to use direct bank transfers instead of completing transactions on eBay. Around 160 customers paid over money in this way, between July 2003 and July 2004.

An e-Bay spokesman said it believed the auction site was one of the most difficult places to commit fraud "due to the open and transparent nature of the listings and the traceability of the transactions", adding: "This kind of case shows crime does not pay on eBay."

But in fact Lett and the Levi brothers only came to the attention of the police in April 2004 when BT Openworld identified a flat (rented by Lett's girl-friend) from which a 'stolen' broadband account was operated. Initially they denied wrong-doing, but the police were able to detect fraudulent transactions after forensic examination of computers seized from the flat.