A cheeky cyber-squatter has lost a battle with one of the world's best-known wine producers after trying to secure a few free cases.

Nick Gebbie found himself up against the big boys after doing a bit of business on the internet.

The 24-year-old, from Ringmer, near Lewes, caused a stir with Bordeaux bigwig Baron Philippe de Rothschild by cyber-squatting.

He registered the internet domain names of the world-famous Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and then offered to return them in return for a few cases of wine.

While Lafite agreed to Nick's idea, Mouton thought it was being cheated.

Nick, 24, who works as a head hunter, said: "When I was at university, I decided to check out a couple of domain names and I picked the two top wine chateaux.

"They are very traditional, old-world companies and had not been internet savvy.

"I thought I would register the names, including all the variations, and approach them as a cheeky student trying it on for a couple of cases of wine."

Through Register.com, Nick bought the rights to the names chateaumoutonrothschild.com and chateaulafiterothschild.com and variations.

He said: "Lafite was friendly about it. It gave me a refund and said to come down at my convenience and have a couple of cases and no hard feelings.

"But the Mouton-Rothschild took it as an aggressive business decision to grab its name and started legal proceedings.

"The funny thing is, both families used the same set of lawyers."

Nick registered the names in 1999, shortly before new legislation was introduced banning cyber-squatting.

However, the dispute with Baron Philippe de Rothschild has only just been resolved by a domain name arbitration panel.

Marie-Madeleine Saintout, lawyer for Domaines Rothschild, said the chateau was willing to make a deal but Nick asked too much.

The arbitration panel found Nick had registered the names "in bad faith" and they should be returned to the chateau.

Nick said: "I was a bit naive and didn't realise I could get into hot water if it went pear-shaped. But if you don't try these things you don't know what will happen."