ABSTRACT
Facts: Between 1August 1999 and 5 April 2000, the various offences were committed. Mr Bower, while not actually owning a particular rare stamp, advertised it for sale through the bidding process of eBay. That is an electronic auction site. And when the bidding got up to $100,000 he said he never intended to actually complete this transaction because of course he did not have the stamp, but he was just doing it as a hoax or to see how high it would go, and then at the last minute he pulled the matter away from the bidding process. That has nothing to do with what he is charged with today, but he says this gave him the bright idea then that he would become a broker in rare items, such as stamps and coins and baseball cards, Rolex watches. That he, not having those things in his possession, would scan pictures of such items into the computer, claiming that he possessed them, and would try selling them using different sellers’ names on eBay. He indicated that while he did not have possession of those items at the time in question, he was hopeful that when the people would send him the money for those items, that he would then be able to use that money to go out and buy those types of items on the general market and still provide the product. He claims that he had some 300 successful transactions where he was able to come up with the merchandise and satisfy the customers. There were a number of people who did complain, saying that they were dealt with fraudulently. I think they had some 29 people that fit in that category.
