Charity bucket auction collapses

Proceeds from the auction will be given to Oxfam

A website auction for a bucket of Bristol water being sold for charity has had to re-start after being mistakenly shut down.

A customer support worker on the eBay site was unaware of the wide publicity surrounding the bids to be donated to Oxfam and thought it was a hoax.

It was closed on Friday evening just after the bidding had reached £1,220.

Justin Kelly of Brislington, Bristol, now revealed as the man who started the auction, told BBC News Online: "I am absolutely gutted.

"I started it as a joke but when the bids reached £117 and rising I decided to make it so all the money would go to charity."

eBay has apologised to Mr Kelly for the mistake and reinstated the auction.

However the bidding restarted at £10 as the website said they were unable to include the previous bids.

Bristol Water have pledged to match the highest bid up to a maximum of £200.

Mr Kelly, 31, who when the story started attracting national and international interest was at first just known as "juss01", said his original intention had been to see if people really would buy anything.