Nelson man scammed fans out of Adele tickets
Adele fans were left out in the cold after a man with a track record of concert ticket scams tricked them out of $600.
Nelson man Tuwhare Arapere promised four tickets at $150 each to the British singer’s New Zealand concert at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on March 25, 2017. He used Facebook to organise the sale but never delivered the tickets.
While Arapere initially responded to the victim’s email, saying the tickets were ‘‘coming in an hour or two’’, he soon broke off contact and stopped replying to further emails.
Arapere appeared in the Nelson District Court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining by deception.
As well as the failure to deliver the Adele tickets, Arapere was convicted of defrauding a victim in July 2016 over the sale of a $170 iPhone.
On both charges, Arapere told police the reason for his actions was ‘‘he was hungry and wanted to survive’’.
Defence lawyer Abigail Goodison said Arapere had been sentenced on similar charges throughout 2016 and 2017. He had been taking steps since then to change his behaviour.
Arapere appeared in court in August 2017, where $3000 worth of reparations were sought after he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of obtaining by deception.
Items were sold through Facebook, and included tickets to J Cole and Justin Bieber concerts, a vest and jacket, a bag, and a handbag. The items failed to reach the buyers.
At the time, Judge David Ruth said Arapere had ‘‘a bad history’’ for these types of offences.
Arapere was convicted and sentenced to 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay a total of $760 in reparations.