Man pleads guilty to IT goods scam

A SHERIFF expressed disbelief that a major company would hand over goods worth £50,000 to a man who told them over the internet that some of their products had been faulty.

Sheriff Frank Crowe was dealing with the case of 28-year old Iain Winfield, who had pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to carrying out a fraudulent scheme to obtain electronic goods.

Winfield of Oxcars Avenue, Burntisland, operated his scam from premises in Slateford Road, Edinburgh.

He contacted Hewlett Packard online pretending to represent various IT companies, complaining that computer equipment supplied by Hewlett Packard had been faulty and requesting replacement under the company's warrant scheme.

Fiscal Depute, Ruth Ross-Davie, said the company did not require the "faulty" items to be returned, but simply sent replacements. Winfield received 50,000 worth of goods, and none of it has been recovered.

Hewlett Packard eventually began to suspect something was wrong and contacted the police.

Sentence was deferred for background reports.