A JOBLESS man was jailed for 24 months on Wednesday for a series of cheating cases involving the sale of clothes and accessories on the Internet.

Chew Kiew Cheng, 29, who faced 126 charges, admitted to 24 charges of cheating 12 victims of $6,299. The rest were taken into consideration.

The total amount in all the charges was $11,245.

The victims, who were mainly in their teens, reported to police last October stating that they had ordered goods from two websites and had not received them after payment.

The two websites - www.nice-spree.blogspot.com and www.nicespree.blogspot.com - were taken down on Oct 18. Neither Chew nor his girlfriend could be contacted.

Deputy Public Prosecutor John Lu told a court on Wednesday that the couple were unemployed between June and September.

When the accomplice set up a blogsite to buy and sell second-hand clothes, Chew hatched a plot and instructed her to create the website www.nice-spree.blogspot.com, offering cheap jeans and teenage accessories for sale.

Once contacted by a buyer, he would ask the victim to transfer payment to an account. He also gave his mobile to create a false impression that he was a genuine seller.

After the money had been transferred, the victim would either e-mail or text-message Chew who replied that the goods would be delivered in three to four weeks.

When the first website was later barred for being a spam site, a second was created to perpetuate the scam.

Chew would use the moniker 'Missy' or 'Missy Chew' to communicate with the victims.

After receiving the money, he would withdraw it to pay for his personal expenses and settle his debts. No deliveries were made despite repeated calls by the victims.

His girlfriend, who has not been charged yet, was arrested by the police in an ambush on Oct 23. He surrendered himself the same day.

He could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined, or both, on each cheating charge.