Ticket touts mocked customers who bought Harry Potter play tickets, trial told

Mark Woods, 59, and Lynda Chenery, 51, of Dickleburgh, Norfolk, each deny three counts of fraudulent trading

Staff at a touting firm mocked customers they exploited by selling tickets to sold out events at inflated prices, a court heard.

TQ Tickets Ltd used multiple identities to buy tickets for concerts and plays. including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, before selling them on secondary sales sites, prosecutors said.

Mark Woods, 59, and Lynda Chenery, 51, of Dickleburgh, Norfolk, each deny three counts of fraudulent trading.

The pair's spouses admit the offences.

Prosecutors showed jurors messages between Paul Douglas, who has admitted fraudulent trading, and his wife Lynda Chenery.

Douglas described a customer who bought two tickets for the popular Harry Potter West End show for £535 each as "another idiot".

The face value of tickets was about £130, a trial at Leeds Crown Court heard.

Ms Chenery replied to a Skype messaging and said, "plenty of them it seems".

"Greed and dishonesty" motivated the firm that "exploited" music lovers out of more than £6.5m, prosecutors said.

The firm also used multiple identities to buy tickets for artists such as Ed Sheeran and Little Mix, before selling them on secondary ticket sites, the court heard.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said: "This was all about milking customers for profit - ripping them off, in effect."

The firm put singer Ed Sheeran's tour tickets up for sale before they went on general release

In other messages, Douglas told Ms Chenery he had just sold two tickets to the Last Night Of The Proms at the Albert Hall in September 2016, for £462 each. He then said they were "47 quid tickets".

Mr Sandiford said the firm also engaged in "speculative listing" on secondary platforms where tickets were sold before they had even been sourced, including Ed Sheeran tour tickets in 2017.

The prosecutor said the firm then used a range of tactics to source the tickets once they became available.

Mr Sandiford said the jury would hear a statement from Mr Sheeran's promoter, Stuart Galbraith, which stated that he had a strict policy on that tour of limiting ticket prices to between £50 and £80.

TQ Tickets Ltd sold dozens of tickets at prices that averaged more than double the face value, Mr Sandiford said.

Jurors were previously told the defendants' partners Maria Chenery-Woods, who called herself Ticket Queen, and Paul Douglas, who referred to himself as Ticket Boy, had already admitted fraudulent trading.

Mr Sandiford said the fact that Chenery-Woods and Douglas had pleaded guilty meant that there was "no dispute that the fraudulent scheme exists".

Ms Chenery is also Chenery-Woods's sister.

The trial continues.