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Stay-at-home PayPal crook used stolen funds to buy gold bullion

Nottingham outlaw robbed the rich to feed ... himself

A computer crook who swindled eBay customers out of more than £185,000 has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Richard Kirk, 22, and from the Sherwood area of Nottingham, raided the PayPal accounts of 303 eBay users, transferring the money to accounts under his control. He used the stolen funds to buy a variety of goods, including laptops and bars of gold bullion.

Kirk was caught after one of his victims contacted police, who tracked Kirk down to his Mum's house. The outlaw was arrested after he took delivery of two bars of gold bullion, This is Nottingham reports.

Faced with the overwhelming evidence against him, Kirk pleaded guilty to fraud and theft charges. Judge Ebrahim Mooncey, who jailed him for three-and-a-half years at a sentencing hearing at Nottingham Crown Court, said: "A lot of effort was put in by you over a long period of time in order to conduct the fraud you did." ®

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