Ed Sheeran's team welcomes conviction of Norfolk ticket touts who led £6.5m fraud

Ed Sheeran's team have welcomed the guilty verdict a family who touted gig tickets worth millions of pounds.

Mark Woods and Maria Chenery-Woods from Diss were convicted after setting up a "dishonest" ticket re-selling scheme online.

Over two-and-a-half years, they used multiple identities - some fake - to buy huge numbers of tickets to high profile shows, such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga, in bulk from Ticketmaster.

They had set up a firm called TQ Tickets Ltd, that would then re-sell the tickets at a hugely inflated price through sites like Viagogo.

Chenery-Woods's sister, Lynda, and her ex-husband Paul also pleaded guilty to the offences.

Leeds Crown Court heard a statement from Suffolk singer Ed Sheeran's manager, Stuart Camp, and music promoter Stuart Galbraith on Wednesday.

He described the "extensive measures" they went to as they tried to prevent the re-selling of tickets at inflated prices for the singer’s 2018 UK stadium tour.

Following the verdicts, Mr Galbraith said: "Today’s verdict is good news for live music fans, who are too often ripped off and exploited by greedy ticket touts."

Mr Camp said: "Ed Sheeran’s 2018 summer stadium tour was when we really took a stand against online ticket touts.

"The low point for me had been one of his earlier Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, where tickets were listed on Viagogo for thousands of pounds, but with none of the money going to charity.

"Today’s prosecution will help protect music fans and sets an important precedent in the live entertainment industry that I hope will be celebrated by live music fans."

Jurors in the TQ Tickets trial heard that Maria Chenery-Woods, who referred to herself as the Ticket Queen, was the driving force behind the company.

An investigation by National Trading Standards found that the defendants used several dishonest tactics to purchase multiple tickets from primary ticket sellers including using multiple identities to buy tickets and concealing their IP address by using specialist software.

They then used false identities to resell the tickets at vastly inflated prices – in some cases at 500% more than the face value – on secondary ticketing websites.

Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, opened the case saying: "What this case is about is greed and dishonesty. The two defendants were ticket touts."

He said: "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, our favourite artists – people like Ed Sheeran and so forth."

Mr Sandiford said they did this "in order to milk them for profits".

The prosecutor referred to practices including “doing a fraudie”, which involved sending customers ripped envelopes to infer that the tickets had been lost in transit, or “using fraud juice”, which involved the use of Tipp-Ex correcting fluid, or more sophisticated digital methods, to amend tickets.

Mr Sandiford said that in the period June 2015 to December 2017, the firm had sales in excess of £6.5m on secondary ticket platforms.

Mr Sandiford said the firm bought 47,000 tickets during that period, using 127 names and 187 different email addresses.

Those within TQ Tickets communicated via Skype messages, which were shown to the jury.

In one message, Douglas said to Chenery-Woods that the purpose of the business is to "simply rinse consumers for as much profit as they are willing to pay".

Woods told the court he believed there was "nothing untoward" about his wife’s business.

He said TQ Tickets was an "obsession" for her, telling jurors: "She became completely obsessed. It took priority over me, the family, and it caused conflict."

Lynda Chenery said she did some book-keeping work for her sister’s firm but did not think TQ Tickets was involved in any kind of fraud.

She said she became company secretary after being asked by her sister, but this did not involve performing any duties.

Chenery, 51, and Woods, 59, both of Dickleburgh, near Diss, Norfolk, were found guilty of three counts of fraudulent trading.

Chenery-Woods, 54, also of Dickleburgh, and Douglas, 56, of Pulham Market, Norfolk, admitted the same offences.

All four defendants will be sentenced at a later date.