A man selling unsafe electronic computer equipment on eBay was hit with fines and costs totalling over £3,000 after a prosecution brought by Waltham Forest Council’s Trading Standards Service.

The prosecution against him was brought after a complaint was made to the Service on January 13 last year concerning an unsafe USB cable and power adaptor purchased from ‘justparts09’ on the internet auction site.

The device was to be used to transfer photographs from a computer to a laptop but when plugged in it exploded after just two minutes, fusing the whole of the purchaser’s house and destroying his computer hard drive.

Oluwaseyi Babatunde initially pleaded not guilty when the case was put before Thames Magistrates Court on Wednesday April 24, but half way through the proceedings he changed his plea to guilty to the four matters on the summons.

Trading Standards officers then made a test purchase of the same equipment from the seller and had an electrical expert carry out tests that revealed the equipment failed to meet requirements because of inadequate insulation and issues with construction and marking.

Babatunde admitted not sending any of the equipment he had purchased to an electrical testing house, instead relying on his own testing of two or three of the units from a batch of 50.

He was also unable to produce test certificates from the Chinese suppliers.

Magistrates found Babatunde guilty on all four counts and ordered him to pay a £1,500 fine, £1,500 costs and a £120 victim’s surcharge.

Councillor Clyde Loakes said: “The equipment this individual was selling was patently unsafe and could have caused a lot more physical damage to the resident, his family and his property.

“However, even putting to one side those risks, we know that the purchaser lost all his data on his computer, including cherished photographs of his grandparents who are no longer with him and of his children when they were younger.

“It is these sorts of irreplaceable personal effects that unscrupulous sellers are destroying in their pursuit of making a quick buck and in Waltham Forest we don’t care whether you’re flogging dodgy gear out of a suitcase down the market or doing it online – we will catch you and we will prosecute you. Del Boys beware!”