Needs must and pawning is posh, or so we are told. From county ladies pledging a Georgian silver tea set, to City boys hawking gold Rolex watches, the tide of middle-class money angst is rising. What do you do when hubby loses his job at the bank and the school fees are owing? Why, you trade Granny’s pearls for cash, of course.

Pawning is easy money but very expensive; a typical pawnbroker might charge between 6 and 8 per cent a month on a six-months loan. You comfort yourself as you dart into the shop with the funny golden balls suspended over the door that it is just an innocent stopgap measure. When so many are feeling the pinch, there is no embarrassment in pawning, no shame in selling a set of spoons on eBay, is there?

There might be anger, however, if you had recently been robbed. Other people – not the sort you would invite into your home – also use pawnbrokers and internet auction sites as convenient sources of cash.

Let me spell it out: there are people who are criminals; there are people who profit from the proceeds of crime; and, then, there is eBay. When the skinny kid with the crack habit climbs out of your window this Easter weekend (don’t forget to set the alarm) where does he sell your gold cufflinks?

I can tell you because I know where he goes. Months ago a thief with a hide of steel (or veins running with painkiller) battered down our front door and made off with assorted trinkets including my wristwatch, a vintage specimen of some value. “See if it is on eBay,” was the advice of an antique dealer. Lo and behold, my wife discovered it with a few mouse clicks.

There followed an extraordinary comedy in which we and the police attempted to stop the online auction from proceeding. EBay ignored our pleas. We only respond to police requests, was the reply. The police contacted eBay, the auction clock ticked and the bids flowed in. My watch was popular and in desperation on the final day, within hours of the auction closing, after frantic phone messages (unanswered) I sent an angry e-mail from The Times to eBay’s press office. Within minutes I was called by a charming lady who set wheels in motion. “We received no forms from the police,” said eBay. “We asked for forms, they never sent them,” said the police.

The auction stopped, the address of the vendor was released: a pawnbroker, located within 10 minutes walk of my house, gave up my watch. The thief, of course, was never found: he gave a bogus name and address to the pawnbroker.

Thanks to eBay, the shadowy world of fencing stolen goods is now electronic and accessible to all. I should perhaps be grateful it was so easy to find my watch, easier than visiting every pawnshop and street market in London. I am grateful that my office e-mail received swift attention. Still, it is disturbing to see what was once a black market, an under-the-counter business of whispers and nudges, become automated, commoditised and sanitised by a multinational corporation.

EBay is not a thief, nor does it knowingly trade with thieves. It employs thousands of investigators to handle thousands of complaints, but that is beside the point.

It is too efficient a conduit. There is mounting concern about the electronic trade in stolen goods. Police statistics suggest there were more than 8,000 crimes on eBay reported last year, about one every hour, involving stolen goods, fraud or deception. In February a professional fence described as “a modern-day Fagin” was arrested in the West Country. He employed a gang of drug-addicted shoplifters and shifted the goods through eBay auctions.

The online auction fad may be about to dim as the crime wave deepens. In America, Bills have been tabled in Congress that would tighten the noose, forcing more disclosure from online marketplaces.

In 1994, Parliament abolished a 700-year-old rule that stolen goods bought in “good faith” on recognised street markets could be kept by the buyer. We need to go further. Why should a vendor be allowed to hide his address in an online auction? Is a crumpled gas bill enough proof of identity to pawn gold jewellery?

A shopkeeper is proud to show his face. We need to know more about eBay’s sellers and if eBay will not tell us, we need to ask why.

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