Great Yarmouth shop man guilty of scam

Trading standards officers have welcomed the conviction of a Great Yarmouth auction shop owner who scammed customers into buying cheap low quality goods.

Eliot Gavan was found guilty of four offences of making false representations and fraudulent trading at Norwich Crown Court on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old from London had ran his Catalogue Clearance Agents on Regent Road from 2006 to 2008.

In August 2008 Gavan's shop was raided by county council trading standards and police after large numbers of customers complained they had been ripped off.

Gavan's auction shop was targeted towards tourists.

He lured them into auctions by making people believe that if they bought cheap electrical goods they could then buy branded goods such as LG mobile phones, Apple IPods and Nintendo Wiis for a heavily discounted price.

However the promise of branded goods at a discount price turned out to be fake rouse and customers ended up with cheap and shoddy electrical items instead.

Following numerous complaints trading standards launched an undercover investigation which resulted in a joint police raid on August 22 2008 in which at least a van load of shoddy and cheap goods was taken away.

Yesterday principal trading officer Dean King, who took part in the raid, welcomed Gavan's conviction and pledged to clamp down on anyone who sets up illegal auction shops or events in the county.

Mr King said: 'We are pleased that the court has recognised the criminality of Gavan's actions at Catalogue Clearance Agents.

'He was looking for passing trade such as tourists rather than Yarmouth residents as locals would have given him a bad time.'

On Wednesday Norwich Crown Court heard Gavan had no previous convictions.

He will be sentenced on July 30 for four offences under the Fraud Act of 2006 of making false representations and fraudulent trading between July 1 2008 and August 27 2008.