Terry is the owner of a classic car hire company called “The Open Road”. When he went onto eBay he saw that the current bid price was £5,000 about a quarter of the vehicles true value. Once he contacted eBay Motors they removed the listing. Having checked the seller’s details he discovered the “seller” was offering another car that he did not have and he was able to warn the true owner.

There was never any danger of Mr Merrygold losing ownership of his car but obviously any “buyer” would not be so lucky if he or she parted with any money.

A spokesperson for eBbay Motors said: "The listing in question was removed as soon as the fraud report was filed and eBay are currently investigating the seller in question.

"Thanks to its transparent nature, eBay.co.uk is one of the worst places to sell stolen goods.

"Firstly, if it's illegal we don't allow it on the site and secondly, eBay's is so transparent that a seller's activities on the site are visible to the millions of other vigilant eBay users and also to the police and other law enforcement agencies we work with.

"eBay continues to work very closely with law enforcement including the Metropolitan Police's Stolen Vehicle Unit to assist them in investigating alleged illegal activity on the site, which helps them to make arrests."