Scam ticket website fraudster who stole millions jailed

David Spanton used fake ticket websites to launder money

A man who made nearly £4m from an illegal ticketing business has been jailed for 22 months, after pleading guilty to money laundering.

David Spanton, from Holloway in London, appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he also admitted four counts of obtaining credit while bankrupt.

He stole the money through websites offering fake gig and sports tickets.

Spanton had already 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.

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."

Football tickets

Evidence of different ticket sales were found at the address Spanton was arrested at.

These included Premier League football matches, concerts and Wimbledon tennis passes.

One customer lost £3,790 to Spanton after buying tickets to the 2010 Champions League Final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich which never arrived.

A second victim lost £592 buying tickets for the Premier League match between Chelsea and Wigan in May 2010.

Officers say they are applying to seize the illegal profits to stop Spanton from running a similar kind of scam again.

Detective Superintendent Nick Downing is part of Operation Podium, which investigates serious and organised crime.

He says that 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."