Three Romanians who conned eBay customers out of thousands of pounds have been sentenced to a total of eight years' in prison.

The gang tricked customers into paying for £300,000 worth of non-existent goods which never arrived.

The ring leader, Nicolae Cretanu, 30, of Forest Gate, London, was given a three and a half year prison sentence. His wife Adriana, 23, and George Titar, 26, of Stratford in east London, both got two and a half years.

Internet users logging on to the auction site were tempted by the Cretanus to bid for a variety of items such as cars, electrical items, tickets for sporting events, and parachute trousers.

They received an e-mail telling them that they had been outbid but that they had a "second chance" to obtain similar or identical items if they wired money to Britain. But the items did not exist and a share of the money was pocketed by the swindlers, before the rest was forwarded to their bosses in their home country to fund a life of luxury.

The gang duped 3,000 victims from around the world into paying about £300,000 for fictitious goods between 2003 and 2005.

A variety of aliases were used in the e-mails, but they were caught after suspicious officials from a money transfer company, Western Union, contacted the police.

Nicolae was sentenced to three-and-a-half years at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court this afternoon while his wife Adriana was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Titar was given two-and-a-half years.

Passing sentence, Judge Duncan Matheson, QC, said that they and their Eastern European masters "exploited perceived weaknesses in the Ebay system targeting a large number of people who parted with monies under entirely fraudulent circumstances".

While it was "all very well" for them to insist they were "mere foot soldiers", they nevertheless knew exactly they were doing and what they were involved in, he added.

Detectives described the scam as a "well planned" and "sophisticated" fraud. They said that this "type of high value, low volume fraud" is being carried out by a significant number of groups making a lot of money, which is then often used to fund other criminal activities.

Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer said that the gang's accomplices in Romania had been arrested and were awaiting trial.

A police spokesman warned Ebay-users "not to send money to people you do not know personally". Bidders in this case had been encouraged to "step outside" the safety guidelines set by the auction site.

The Cretanus, of Cann Hall Road, Forest Gate, and Titar, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain property by deception and money laundering earlier this year. The racket was investigated by Scotland Yard’s specialist economic crime unit.

About a billion pounds is made each year through this kind of crime. Earlier this month the Metropolitan Police launched an awareness campaign to counter the threat of internet fraudsters.

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