Web suitor bids £251,000 for bride

Marriage auction: There will be a pre-nuptial agreement

An internet entrepreneur says she will marry an anonymous man who bid £251,000 for her in an online auction.

Kay Hammond, 24, from Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham, said the wedding will go ahead provided the man passes a number of basic checks, such as having no criminal record.

Her potential husband, known only by his internet nickname Ben Webb, was one of two men prepared to pay the £250,000 reserve price Ms Hammond was asking.

The other suitor, who signed on as Andrew 1901, will probably lose his bid to become her husband because Ms Hammond promised to marry the highest bidder if there were only two contenders.

'Too busy'

A spokeswoman said: "She plans to meet both of them but, if all other things are equal, she is not bothered who she marries and will choose the highest bidder."

The rules of the sale stipulate that neither man can withdraw their bid, but Ms Hammond is entitled to pull out at any point if she chooses.

I thought that by creating an online auction I would be able to reach as many men as possible

Kay Hammond internet bride

Ms Hammond, who is 5ft 4ins tall, opened the internet auction in December.

The future bride, who is managing director of web-design company TAMBA Internet, based in Birmingham, said she resorted to the auction because she was too busy working to find a partner.

In her advertisement with the internet auction company QXL, she said: "So often I have complained to my friends, family and colleagues that I never have the time to meet any men.

"I thought that by creating an online auction I would be able to reach as many men as possible and hopefully prove that the internet is not full of cyber-geeks, there are normal people out there."

'Unethical' notion

A spokesperson for Ms Hammond said: "There will be a pre-nuptial agreement, but we are not sure of the details yet."

"But the money will have to go into the bank before they get married.

Ms Hammond first approached internet site eBay with her idea but they refused to accept her, saying they found the notion unethical.

She approached QXL and first appeared on their site under the auction heading: "Kay Hammond, internet entrepreneur, looking for a husband."

The site was flooded with bids, and the reserve price was met within hours.

Then, on Christmas Eve, a clearly bogus bid of £1bn forced her to close the site and relaunch it with tighter security.

The website received more than 38,000 hits for the wedding auction in the two weeks after it reopened.