£11m ticket touts face jail
They ran scam from bedroom using 97 fake names and 112 credit cards
TWO online ticket touts are facing jail following a landmark conviction for fraudulently selling concert tickets worth millions of pounds.
Peter Hunter, 51, and his husband David Smith, 66, were found guilty yesterday of using multiple identities and credit cards to ‘harvest’ tickets worth £4million.
They resold tickets to events such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift gigs for almost £11million from the bedroom of their terraced house.
Trading as Ticket Wizz and BZZ, they sold through the so-called big four secondary ticketing sites – Viagogo, StubHub, Get Me In and Seatwave – raising questions about the future of the industry.
During a three-month trial, Leeds Crown Court heard that Hunter and Smith, of Tottenham, north London, used computer software to mask their identities and make multiple applications for tickets on primary selling sites such as Ticketmaster and See Tickets, which normally limit sales to a handful per buyer.
The events targeted also included Gary Barlow, Coldplay, The Killers, AC/DC, Eurovision, The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.
Hunter and Smith claimed the likes of Ticketmaster knew they were ‘large sellers’, and they were classed as a ‘trusted seller’ by StubHub and a ‘partner’ by Seatwave.
Get Me In and Seatwave, which were owned by Ticketmaster, have since closed down.
Between June 2015 and December 2017, they spent more than £4million buying tickets from primary ticket sites – and sold them on secondary sites for £10.8million. The pair used 290 email addresses, 112 payment cards and a list of 97 fake names at 88 addresses throughout Britain.
The prosecution said using computer ‘bots’ – software that harvested tickets ‘en masse’, thereby keeping them away from real music fans – amounted to fraud.
Jurors agreed, and Hunter and Smith were found guilty of three counts of fraudulent trading and one count of possessing an article for use in fraud, and were bailed until their sentencing. Following the convictions – the first since National Trading Standards began investigating reselling in 2017 – experts said the bosses of sites such as Viagogo and StubHub must also be investigated.
Reg Walker, from The Iridium Consultancy, which investigates secondary ticketing, said the case was ‘groundbreaking’. He added: ‘This verdict means many tickets sold through resale platforms such as StubHub and Viagogo were acquired unlawfully and these companies may be reasonably suspected of benefiting from the proceeds of crime.
‘There should be a criminal investigation into these platforms.’
Adam Webb, of The FanFair Alliance – a group of music managers who campaign against touting, said: ‘We suspect Peter Hunter and David Smith are not exceptional and that other suppliers to these sites may also acquire tickets by unlawful means, no questions asked. Their directors must be held to account.’
Toby Harris, chairman of National Trading Standards, said: ‘This is a landmark case. The fraudulent practices of secondary ticket sellers will no longer be tolerated.’
‘This is a landmark case’