Defence chiefs have banned troops from using eBay as it is distracting them from their duties.

Military IT experts found that soldiers who had returned from overseas duty were busy spending their £2,240 taxfree bonuses on the auction website to buy Christmas presents.

An MoD spokesman said the ban applied to all its computers. One soldier said: “It’s a breach of our liberties.”

All the 180,000 MoD uniformed staff and the 100,000 civilian staff are banned from accessing eBay via the MoD’s network.

But the ban does not apply to squaddies on active service in Iraq or Afghanistan - although they might have trouble getting couriers to deliver their purchases.
Some soliders complained to The Sun newspaper that the ban would make it harder for them to buy extra equipment.

Posted: 11|29|06 at 4:37 pm. Filed under: UK News.