Four quizzed over tickets 'scam'

12 April 2012

Four people were being questioned today on suspicion of duping sport and music fans into buying tickets that did not exist.

The three men and a woman were held at addresses across London and in Waltham Abbey, Essex, on suspicion of fraud by false representation.

The move came after an investigation into a criminal gang that set up worldwidetickets.com and gigsport.com.

The two websites sold tickets for the Reading Festival and concerts featuring global stars such as the Black Eyed Peas and Michael Buble.

Evidence of the fraud emerged through 265 complaints by victims examined by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

They are estimated to have lost a total of £40,000, including a woman who flew from South Africa to the UK having paid £1,800 for three Wimbledon Centre Court tickets.

The NFIB was set up by the National Fraud Authority to receive nationwide reports from the public and small businesses.

Det Ch Supt Steve Head, of City of London Police, said: "Without the bureau many more people could have fallen victim to a criminal gang who we believe to have already conned hundreds of people into paying large sums of money for non-existent tickets.

"I now look forward to police forces across the country using NFIB intelligence to track down the fraudsters who are destroying lives, damaging businesses and costing the UK economy billions of pounds."

Bernard Herdan, of the National Fraud Authority, said: "A case like this shows the importance of the public reporting fraud and how this contributes to an effective enforcement response."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in