A medal that appeared on auction website eBay is not the one stolen from Royals striker Leroy Lita.

The medal was withdrawn from sale after Reading Football Club was alerted to its presence on the site on Monday.

But yesterday, plumber Darren Geater, 38, from Whitley, told the Post he had paid the club about £20 in July to take advantage of a scheme which allowed full-time employees of the club to receive their own replica gold medal, which is identical to one of two medals players received after clinching the Coca-Cola Championship title in April.

Mr Geater advertised it on internet site eBay on Sunday, with a starting bid of 99p.

Several bidders expressed an interest and the price soon rose to £50 so Mr Geater was surprised to find the advertisement had been withdrawn within hours.

He soon found out club officials mistakenly believed it might be the medal stolen from star striker Lita’s Finchampstead home in June.

Mr Geater, who has worked at the Madejski Stadium for three and a half years, said he was shocked when he realised his medal had been confused with Lita’s stolen one.

He said: “Although I work for Reading FC I’m not actually a Reading fan. I just saw the medal to buy. I wanted to give some other lucky fan the chance to own one.”

He added that although he was disappointed with eBay’s handling of the affair, he had now had a more lucrative offer for the coveted medal than the £50 bid on the site.

Posted: 08|16|06 at 10:59 am. Filed under: UK News.