THE OWNER of a Crymych business supplying motorbike parts and accessories says he has lost £22,200 after hackers illegally accessed his Amazon account.

Local county councillor, Cris Tomos, has contacted Amazon on behalf of his constituent, Rob Dobney of Brooks Barn.

"Mr Dobney is at his wits' end after not being able to get a response from Amazon regarding the recent fraudulent activity on his account," said Cllr Tomos.

"He has lost £22,500 through a third party setting up a new bank account to take his sales funds over the past two months.

"He is now gearing up for his quarterly VAT return and this issue has only now been identified."

Mr Dobney employs 11 local people at the business, located on the Gwynfryn estate in Crymych, 40 percent of his business is done through Amazon.

"Since April this year, Amazon had been paying our commission money, our takings, into other people's accounts," Mr Dobney told the BBC.

He said that the fraudsters had somehow managed to siphon money from his account into six bogus accounts, somehow verifying the accounts with a passport, bill or home bill.

"The verification process is supposed to be the failsafe and it's failed," he told the BBC.

Cllr Tomos said his constituent had been trying to contact someone from Amazon regarding the issues with no success and warned that the alleged fraud would have serious consequences for the local economy.

"No one is returning his calls or emails," he said. "He obviously wishes to know what went wrong and how he can make sure it does not happen again.

"He is a small business in a rural community and employs 11 locals," he said. "Businesses such as this are the backbone of local economies.

"The loss of this income will have dire consequences with redundancies."

The Western Telegraph has contacted Amazon for a comment on Mr Dobney's case but the company said it could not comment on indiviudal sellers.