Michael Irwin James Davies pleads guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to committing fraud and breaching bail

An online scammer has fronted court after police caught him ripping off a Facebook user on the site’s marketplace by selling an item he didn’t have. Here’s all the details.

The law soon has up with a 49-year-old Roma man after he falsely sold a PlayStation 4 console to a Mackay man on Facebook Marketplace in August 2020.

Online scammer Michael Irwin James Davies pleaded guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to a string of charges including fraud and breaking bail for another offence.

The police prosecutor said the 51-year-old victim saw the PlayStation 4 advertised for $400 on Facebook and contacted Davies to buy it.

Davies instructed the victim to send money into a Westpac bank account under the defendant’s name.

Davies assured the victim that the PlaysStation 4 had been posted to his address; however, the console never arrived.

Defence lawyer Laurie Parker said his client had no explanation for why he committed the offence, but said Davies suffers from mental health issues including PTSD.

Magistrate Shane Elliott said the defendant didn’t have any previous dishonesty offences and nothing on his history of “a like nature”.

“It is a concerning offence when you use Marketplace to gain money for yourself and someone loses out,” he said.

“If you had more entries, particularly for dishonesty, it’d be more serious what the verdict would be.”

Davies was fined $700 for all offences and ordered to pay the victim $400 in restitution.

No conviction was recorded.