A FRAUDSTER who tricked online buyers out of £18,000 has been told to repay just £1.

Norman Fowler was jailed in October having evaded punishment for fraud for more than four years.

Between January and July in 2013, he conned customers on eBay and Gumtree who paid for pricey appliances and jewellery but never received them.

Fowler, formerly of Propelair Way, Colchester, appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court for confiscation proceedings but only had £1 available.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Judge Emma Peters gave Fowler 28 days to repay the meagre amount and sentenced him to an additional seven days imprisonment.

He is already serving a 20-month sentence for the nine counts of fraud at a secure facility for mentally ill patients.

A spokesperson for the CPS said: “If a defendant does not have any visible assets, there is often an order made in a nominal sum such as £1, so that if any assets are discovered, the order is in place to confiscate them.”

The highest amount a shopper forked out to Fowler, who used at least four different aliases a court heard, was £5,500 for a Rolex watch.

Another man paid £5,320 for a different style Rolex and other items included Canon digital cameras plus several Apple laptops.

When it came time to sending the goods, he gave a host of excuses including being admitted to hospital because of paralysis in his legs.

Initially Fowler had denied the claims but admitted stealing more than £21,000 a week before a trial was due to start.

He had repaid £3,000 to one of the victims.

In a pitiful letter to the judge, Fowler said: “They all genuinely thought they were buying items from me and I abused that trust.

“I am extremely sorry for what I have done and I know what I did was wrong.”

His jail time is in addition to a nine-month sentence handed to him in 2014 after being convicted of stealing camera equipment in Norwich.

But this was in his absence because the prolific scammer had relocated to the Spanish Costa Brava.

He was finally brought to justice on being extradited back to the UK.

Judge David Turner QC, who originally sentenced him, said: “You did not deliver the goods both literally and metaphorically.

“The victim impact statements make for painful reading as the people feel unsettled and humiliated by what you did to them.

“This is not life savings but for some of these people the sums are significant and they have felt cheated and defiled.”

Confiscation orders can be dropped or amended by the court in exceptional circumstances.