Boy, 5, made £50,000 loss on spread-betting website A spread betting company’s ‘inadequate’ terms and conditions made it impossible for it to legitimately attempt to claim £50,000 in lost trades from one of its customers, a judge ruled. .. C made the trades in oil, gold and silver (Picture: Alamy) The 49 pages of Spreadex’s Ts & Cs agreed to by Colin Cochrane was, in the eyes of the law, an ‘unfair contract’.
Mr Cochrane claimed the losses were racked up by his girlfriend’s five-year-old son after he accidentally left his computer on. The boy, referred to in court as ‘C’, made the trades in oil, gold and silver without his authorisation or knowledge.
Deputy judge David Donaldson said it would have been ‘close to a miracle’ if Mr Cochrane had read the relevant clause. Such lengthy terms and conditions were ‘entirely inadequate to seek to make the customer liable for any potential trades he did not authorise’, he said.
Mr Cochrane began using Spreadex in October 2010. In May last year, he visited a friend and did not return for two days. ‘His girlfriend said that his computer had been used by C, and C told him that he had been playing games on it,’ said Mr Donaldson.
Spreadex launched legal proceedings to recover the losses. .
Sets quite a precedent though. You could let your 3 year-old loose on the computer while logged in to your spread betting account: if it wins, you're laughing, if it loses, you're not liable.
Sets quite a precedent though. You could let your 3 year-old loose on the computer while logged in to your spread betting account: if it wins, you're laughing, if it loses, you're not liable.
The 49 pages of Spreadex’s Ts & Cs agreed to by Colin Cochrane was, in the eyes of the law, an ‘unfair contract’.
I bet all the others are now scrutinising theirs.
The 49 pages of Spreadex’s Ts & Cs agreed to by Colin Cochrane was, in the eyes of the law, an ‘unfair contract’. I bet all the others are now scrutinising theirs.
ASIF A 5 year old could use a trading platform & loose that much money, how much of a crap lier is the man, or how thick is he to leave his account open with real money involved LMAO!!
ASIF A 5 year old could use a trading platform & loose that much money, how much of a crap lier is the man, or how thick is he to leave his account open with real money involved LMAO!!
It would seem a very far fetched excuse but the article says he was away visiting a friend at the time so i'm assuming the bloke can actually provide evidence that he was away from home at the time of the trades.
It would seem a very far fetched excuse but the article says he was away visiting a friend at the time so i'm assuming the bloke can actually provide evidence that he was away from home at the time of the trades.
Yeah, fine. He was away and got a mate in to have a few bets. They win, clover. They lose, oh my son did it. As plausible as Elvis shooting JFK. The judge is a moron.
Having said that, the exchange deserve everything they get for having such a long list of terms and conditions.
I would bar people from leaving terms and conditions pages for the average length of time it takes a person to actually read them, for all gambling sites. That'd make firms think twice about impenetrable T&Cs.
Yeah, fine. He was away and got a mate in to have a few bets. They win, clover. They lose, oh my son did it. As plausible as Elvis shooting JFK. The judge is a moron.Having said that, the exchange deserve everything they get for having such a long li