A man who made nearly £4m from an illegal ticketing business has been jailed after pleading guilty to money laundering.
The 42-year-old man stole the money through websites offering fake concert and sports tickets.
He had previously been disqualified for 15 years in 2009 from running similar kinds of companies. Despite the ban the 42-year-old continued to run an online business and used the sites to launder money. He admitted four counts of obtaining credit while bankrupt and has been jailed for 22 months.
Victims
One of the website's users, Emma, said she spent £750 trying to get hold of Take That tickets. She said: "I got an email saying their allocation of tickets hadn't been successful so unfortunately they'd done everything they could but we'd been unsuccessful in our allocation.
"No tickets and they've had £750 of my money."
Another customer lost £3,790 after buying tickets to the 2010 Champions League Final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich which never arrived.
Report scams
Detective Superintendent Nick Downing is part of Operation Podium, which investigates serious and organised crime, said: "Although people sometimes get their money back from their credit card company, it is always important to keep the police informed of any scams”
"Historically ticketing crime, ticketing fraud, hasn't been reported," he said.
"This causes problems because when you're trying to get it on a policing agenda or government agenda, there are no reports.People don't see the impact of someone who bought that ticket from a website, who gets told to meet someone at the venue, who's never going to turn up. It's cruel."
Read more about the story on the BBC website.
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