Two plead guilty to eBay auction scam

Two Americans have pleaded guilty to defrauding art buyers out of around £315,000 in online auctions.

Kenneth Walton and Scott Beach have admitted using eBay to sell works falsely attributed to leading artists such as Edward Hopper and Edward Diebenkorn.

The men - along with a third man still wanted by federal authorities - were earlier accused of driving up prices by bidding for their own items.

Their scheme - which ran from November 1998 to last June - garnered bids totalling $450,000 in hundreds of auctions.

According to reports, Walton and Beach have pleaded guilty to seven and four counts of wire and mail fraud respectively.

The have agreed to pay back £69,000 and to avoid online auctions for three years.