17 January 2024 , 22:32
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![The gang is accused of exploiting Little Mix [pictured] fans (Image: Getty Images for Warner Bros)](/upload/news/2024/01/17/149623.jpg)
A “greedy and dishonest” ticket tout gang ripped off music fans for more than £6.5million over two years, a court heard yesterday.
It is alleged Mark Woods, 59, and Lynda Chenery, 51, targeted fans by fraudulently buying huge numbers of seats and reselling them for vast profits. It is claimed fake accounts were set up to buy tickets from Ticketmaster and resell them on Viagogo and StubHub.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC, for Trading Standards, claimed Woods and Chenery exploited Little Mix and Ed Sheeran fans. He said: “What this case is about is greed and dishonesty. The two defendants were ticket touts.
“They were part of a dishonest scheme that, over a number of years. exploited the love and passion that many of us have for our favourite pop bands – people like Ed Sheeran and so forth.”
The accused operated as TQ Tickets Ltd with their respective spouses Maria Chenery-Woods (who is Lynda’s sister) and Paul Douglas. The spouses have admitted fraudulent trading. Jurors heard TQ Ltd was incorporated in 2006 as a touring coach company. But it emerged that only 10% of profits came from the coach operation.
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Accounts showed it made £156,000 between 2015 and 2017, when bosses were arrested, but the secondary ticket sales in that period topped £6.5m. Leeds crown court heard Chenery-Woods was obsessed with money and dubbed herself The Ticket Queen, while Douglas called himself Ticket Boy.
Chenery, who lived with Douglas in Diss, Norfolk, was company secretary of TQ Ltd. Woods, who lived nearby, was a director, with his wife the owner. The trial heard Skype chats between Woods and his wife on November 30, 2017, the day Little Mix tickets went on sale, showed he bought blocks of eight seats. It is alleged seats were bought for a Harry Potter play too.
Jurors heard Woods could get NFL tickets in his role as a Phillips UK boss. Mr Sandiford said: “The aim of ticket touts is to rinse consumers for as much profits as a consumer is willing to pay.”
It is alleged TQ Ltd used the identities of dead people to buy seats while a 10-year-old boy, who was a relative, snapped up £3,350 worth of tickets. Some 124 debit and credit cards were recovered at the company’s head-quarters, while 47,000 tickets were allegedly bought using 127 names, 187 email and 200 postal addresses.
Woods and Chenery deny three counts of fraudulent trading. The trial continues.