A Wood County jury took less than two hours to convict a Fostoria man of selling tickets to the 2005 Ohio State-Michigan football game, then leaving the buyers empty-handed.

Jurors found Mark West, 54, guilty of theft and telecommunications fraud for taking more than $161,000 from 250 people who ordered tickets through the Internet auction site eBay.

West faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine on each count when he is sentenced Dec. 1 by Wood County Common Pleas Judge Alan Mayberry.

“It was pretty well obvious there was deception by the ad in eBay,” juror Timothy Baker said after the verdicts were read. “In the ad he said, ‘I guarantee these seats,’ and he had no way to do that.”

Juror Bob Trimble said the six men and six women who served on the jury had no trouble agreeing to convict West.

“I think before you sell a product on eBay you should have the product in hand,” he said. “It was a pretty simple case, really.”

During two and a half days of testimony that concluded yesterday, a half-dozen customers who bought tickets to the Ohio State-Michigan game from West testified that they were led to believe West had the tickets or a direct source for the tickets because his eBay listing detailed the section and row of the stadium where the seats were located.

The buyers said they did not become suspicious until about two weeks before the game, when the tickets were supposed to arrive by Federal Express but never did.

West, the only witness called by defense attorney Andy Hart, testified for five hours yesterday about the business he started in late 2002 selling tickets on eBay. He said it was his practice to sell tickets he did not have in hand well in advance of sporting events, then buy tickets to fill those orders from students, alumni, season ticketholders, ticket brokers, and even through eBay.

West said he never intended to defraud anyone, but admitted he was unable to deliver the tickets he’d sold to the Ohio State-Michigan game on Nov. 19, 2005, because of inflated ticket prices and because he’d taken an $85,000 loss on tickets he’d sold for the Buckeyes’ game with Texas on Sept. 10, 2005.

He said he intended to deliver tickets for the Ohio State-Michigan game or get refunds to his customers. But when fraud allegations surfaced in the days leading up to the game, West fled to Florida without telling his wife, Teresa, where he was going. He was not seen again until he was arrested Jan. 14 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

A senior fraud investigator with eBay testified earlier this week that the company reimbursed all of the customers who bought tickets from West on eBay.

The company subsequently filed a civil suit against West.

Posted: 09|30|06 at 3:42 pm. Filed under: US News.