A PENSIONER sued internet giant Ebay for negligence over a sugar shaker and won.

William Durham, of Richmond Crescent in Highams Park, is now preparing to send the bailiffs to the company’s Surrey office if they do not pay the total £213.89 owed to him for the antique and court costs.

The retired painter and decorator decided to take on the company after handing over the cash for what he was promised was a Georgian sugar caster. But when the antique arrived Mr Durham was angry to find the antique was part Victorian.

After failing to get a refund from the dodgy seller, who was not living at the address listed on his account, Mr Durham decided to make a claim for the money because, he says, the company failed to provide protection.

The 68-year-old said: “I was told by the Financial Services Authority and Consumer Direct that I couldn’t sue Ebay.

“It has taken up a lot of my time, but I will pursue it. In the past I have let it go but I am not prepared to lose my money any more.”

The grandfather-of-nine was not insured for the item because he had not paid for the item using PayPal - a money service owned by Ebay which offers refunds if the sale goes wrong.

Furious at being told there was nothing more he could do, Mr Durham decided to go straight to the top and issued a court summons to Ebay.

The company, which has now made Paypal payments mandatory for all users, failed to enter a defence in the case by the deadline of January 2.

A County Court judge in Ilford has therefore ordered Ebay to reimburse him, otherwise he is entitled to remove and sell goods from their premises to recoup the money.

Mr Durham said: “The website is being abused by people trying to rip people off. I am very concerned about people buying on there. I am sure I am not the only one who has had problems.

“From my experience, the British public are not getting a fair deal from consumer groups set up to offer advice about such companies.”

A spokeswoman for Ebay said that they could not comment because of on-going legal proceedings.

The spokeswoman said: “We do now require all sellers to offer PayPal as a payment option on every listing so that buyers have the option of protection on any purchase they make on the site. Unfortunately, it looks like Mr Durham’s transaction happened before this policy was put in place.

“We do take responsibility when things go wrong. Last year we reduced the amount of bad experiences by 20 per cent in the UK alone.”