Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Fraudster pockets £22k in ticket scam
Fury at Monklands woman’s illegal plan
A despicable Monklands fraudster pocketed more than £22,000 after conning hundreds of music fans in a huge ticket scam.
Lisa Crilly, 32, of Airdrie, told victims she worked for the events team at Scottish Event Campus, the owners of the SSE Hydro, after tricking super-tout Thomas Craig who was also under her spell.
Craig paid crooked Crilly the fivefigure sum after striking a dodgy business deal but she pocketed the cash and failed to deliver tickets, instead ploughing money into bookies’ machines and even enjoying a luxury holiday to New York.
She began to print fake tickets for gigs including One Direction and Take That, selling copies to different fans and delivering none of the profit to Craig.
Deplorably, excited fans were refused entry at the door or in some cases hauled from their seats by security guards after fans with the real tickets turned up.
One Coatbridge teenager told how he was affected by Crilly’s scam.
His mum bought two tickets for Taylor Swift’s concert at the Hydro in 2015, but the tickets turned out to be fake.
The teen, from Old Monkland, said: “My mum paid £87 for two tickets for my friend and I.
“When we got there Crilly was standing outside and said “wait here until I upgrade you to VIP.
“She disappeared for about halfan-hour and when she came back took us through a wee side door.
“Shortly after we got to our seats a party of five came up and said we were sitting in their seats.
“Just after the concert started an attendant scanned them and said they were fake.
“I was so upset as we were asked to leave but the manager of the Hydro spoke to us and found us two other available seats.
“But by the time we’d spoken to the manager and been given our new seats we’d missed over half the concert.”
At Airdrie Sheriff Court last week, mum-of-one Crilly admitted fleecing former SFA coach Craig between December 2014 and May 2015.
She was told by Sheriff Morag Galbraith that she will wear a tag for 10 months and remain in her home every day between 7pm and 7am. She must also carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
The Advertiser’s Facebook page has been inundated with comments from Crilly’s victims after we broke the story on Friday.
Lynn Chisholm wrote: “Doing it to adults for darts and Kevin Bridges is bad enough but doing it to weans for One Direction, Wrestling and Disney on Ice?
“She’s nothing but a thieving, lying cow and must have done a few drama lessons in her younger years.”
Stephen Martin commented: “We’ve also been caught out by this cow.
“I went through school with her and she is evil.
“She ruined my mum and dad’s anniversary when they were evicted from the Hydro with fraudulent tickets.”
An SSE spokesman confirmed Crilly had resigned from the energy company in November 2015.
He said: “She worked in our call centre and had no involvement with our sponsorship team or ticketing team.
“She would have been entitled to the same pre-sale privileges as SSE companies for events at The Hydro.”
A spokeswoman for the SSE Hydro and SEC said that Lisa Crilly had never been an employee.