/ 1 October 2009

British girl banned from selling granny on eBay

A 10-year-old British girl has been barred from trying to sell her granny on eBay, who she complained was “cuddly” but “annoying”, the auction website said on Wednesday.

Zoe Pemberton wrote a light-hearted listing to sell her 61-year-old grandmother, Marion Goodall, of Clacton, south-eastern England, but eBay said the advert breached human-trafficking regulations.

“Obviously we have rules about the selling of people,” said an eBay spokesperson. “We had to take it down but it was quite amusing.

“The little girl had described her grandmother as ‘annoying’ but had gone on to say she liked crosswords and was ‘cuddly’ and there were quite a few offers.”

The spokesperson added: “The advert was obviously light-hearted and had been done with the full knowledge of grandma — we do get these kind of things from time to time.” — AFP