Labour’s wannabe model candidate jailed over £120k festival ticket con
AS A Labour council hopeful, she was expected to be at the election count this week.
But instead Charmaine Bowers will be in prison, serving time for a £120,000 ticket fraud.
Photographed cosying up to party leader Ed Miliband just last month, the ‘dishonest and devious’ 23-yearold was described by a judge as a ‘female Walter Mitty’, the fictional fantasist who leads a secret double life.
Bowers, who has never had a proper job, faked a glamorous life online and claimed she earned £8,000 a month modelling for the likes of Dior and Nuts magazine.
She told victims she had access to promotional tickets for the world’s biggest electronic music festival and convinced them to pay up to £500 each. With the help of her mother Tina, she tricked more than 300 people – including Afghanistan veterans – into paying for nonexistent tickets to the Tomorrowland festival in Belgium.
The Labour candidate then splashed the cash on a luxury lifestyle including cruise holidays, televisions and jewellery.
But after admitting six counts of fraud, she was jailed for two years and three months at Plymouth Crown Court last week.
The court heard Bowers had bipolar disorder, but Judge Jeremy Griggs said this would not excuse her from a jail sentence.
‘A female Walter Mitty? Many Walter Mittys appear before the court suffering a bipolar condition, but they still face custodial terms,’ he said.
Bowers was listed as a Labour candidate in the Gainsborough North ward of Lincolnshire’s Conservative-held West Lindsey council – which is electing district councillors on the same day as the General Election.
Andrew Maitland, prosecuting, said the young politician and her 51-year- old mother, who had both moved f rom Devon to Grimsby, were involved in the ‘sophisticated’ fraud between December 2012 and July 2013. He said a police investigation found the total amount lost by the victims was £121,280.
The scam was only uncovered when those who had been duped began to threaten Bowers and her mother because their tickets had not arrived.
Mr Maitland said a ‘tearful’ Bowers went to the police claiming she was being falsely accusing of fraud. She then gave a ‘totally fictitious’ account to police and claimed she had been approached by a friend to sell the tickets, the court was told.
But detectives soon found she had set up a string of Facebook profiles under different names to cover her lies.
In mitigation, Michael Green said Bowers was suffering from bipolar disorder, but accepted there had been no formal diagnosis at the time of her crimes.
He added that she was now on medication for the condition, which he said could present as erratic behaviour, heavy spending and grandiose thinking alternating with low feelings.
The defence lawyer said Bowers was passionate about politics and was a Labour local election candidate in Lincolnshire.
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Glenn Harrop said: ‘Charmaine Bowers has been dishonest and devious to her victims and also to police.’
He added: ‘She was a complete fantasist that made honest people believe she was a Nuts model and a model scout, building her Walter Mitty persona using social media to carry out her crime.
‘She has never worked, but having defrauded victims of their money has managed to spend £70,000 in four months on living the good life … holidays to Denmark and Rome, cruise holidays for her parents … TVs, computers and mobile phones, jewellery and clothes.’
A Labour spokesman yesterday said Bowers had been suspended. Her mother admitted six counts of fraud and was given a 29-week suspended sentence and 150 hours of community service.
‘A complete fantasist’