Soaring number of crooks using small ad site Gumtree

Crimewave leaves police up a Gumtree.

Scottish cops are probing more than 25 crimes every week linked to small ads website Gumtree.

A Sunday Post probe has uncovered soaring allegations of crime linked to the classified ads site.

The crimes include theft, sexual assaults, fraud and criminal threats.

Our investigation has found that Gumtree was mentioned in 1,354 crime reports last year that was up from just 214 in 2009/10.

Shadow Justice Labour MSP and former top cop Graeme Pearson said: “Gumtree has opened up new opportunities for criminals and causes difficulties for police.

“Where before thieves would go from pub to pub selling their stolen wares, now they can line up a seller using the site before leaving their house.

“Crimes can also take place over a large geographical area. Something can be nicked in Glasgow and sold in London. It’s a big challenge for officers.”

In the former Strathclyde Police region, officers have seen crimes linked with Gumtree shoot up from 95 in 2009/10 to 828 last year.

In Edinburgh, cops probed 93 frauds, three currency offences, a sexual offence and a motor theft linked to Gumtree.

Over the past four years it was included in 291 reports, including a probe into serial fraudster John Cardno.

He was jailed in 2012 for eight months after selling fake festival tickets on the site, while pretending to be former TV talent judge Alesha Dixon’s boyfriend.

The ticket tout was convicted for selling photocopies for passes to the 2010 V Festival at £180 each. One of his victims lost £720 to the fraud.

Tayside officers mentioned the site in 378 crime reports last year up from just 54 three years before.

Officers there led an investigation into wannabe tycoon Roger Wallace, from Perth, in 2011.

The 26-year-old, dubbed Roger the Dodger, offered ‘fire-damaged’ iPads for sale on the site for a fraction the cost of new.

But in reality, there were none and customers who paid Wallace Industries hundreds of pounds complained when the devices never arrived.

Wallace then went on a shoplifting spree across Perth to pay off his customers before being caught.

At Perth Sheriff Court in 2012 he narrowly avoided jail and was given a community payback order instead.

Police in Aberdeen, Dumfries and Forth Valley handled 40 crime reports last year linked to the site.

Gumtree was set up in 2000 when two entrepreneurs had an idea of setting up a small ads site for Australians, Kiwis and South Africans arriving in London.

Since then it’s grown to become the UK’s largest small ads site with a million new ads posted every week and eight million visitors every month.

In December, police and social workers in Bradford probed claims a 20-year-old mum had tried to sell her baby for £150,000 on Gumtree.

A spokesman for Gumtree said: “The majority of our users have a safe and successful experience with Gumtree.

“The safety of our users is a top priority for us, although, as with any form of classified listing whether local newspapers or shop windows it is impossible to prevent crime completely.

“To keep our users safe, we employ an experienced Customer Service team, who work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to deal with any threats or instances of crime or fraud.

“In 2013, we received 227 requests for information from Scottish police forces. On top of that, there were about another 100 other council/trading standards type stuff that we’ve been contacted about too.”