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Paul Barrett has become the first person to be prosecuted in the UK for bidding against himself on online auction site eBay.
The online scamster was fined almost $10,000 and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
The judge said Barrett only escaped a prison sentence because of the relatively small amounts of money involved and because he had no previous convictions.
A spokesman for eBay said: 'We will always work closely with law enforcement agencies to ensure that, on the rare occasion someone attempts to follow in Barrett's footsteps, they will be stopped and will face the consequences.'
In a practice known as 'shill bidding', the minibus company owner used two different logins to bid against himself on items he was selling, forcing bidders to raise their prices.
Sometimes if Barrett actually won the bidding he would leave positive feedback about himself.
By using this process he managed to sell two Mercedes vehicles, a pie and pasty warmer, a cash register, a refrigerated display counter, three mobile phones, a Land Rover and a digital camera.
His plan only unravelled after a buyer complained about a van he had been sold and Barrett's second identity was discovered.
On sentencing Barrett at Judge Peter Benson, said: 'This sort of conduct strikes at the heart of that trust which is vital if this very, very useful commercial medium is to continue to operate successfully.'
