Skelmersdale scammer jailed after selling fake Rugby World Cup tickets
A ticket scammer from Skelmersdale who duped innocent people out of hundreds of pounds of cash by selling fake tickets for the Rugby World Cup has been jailed.
A ticket scammer from Skelmersdale who duped innocent people out of hundreds of pounds of cash by selling fake tickets for the Rugby World Cup has been jailed.
33 year old Stuart Bowden of Inskip, was today, sentenced to a total of 15 months in prison at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation and breaching a previous suspended sentence.
Bowden was arrested in December 2015 following a detailed investigation by the Greater Manchester Police Fraud Investigation Team.
In September 2015 Bowden placed adverts on Gumtree for Rugby World Cup tickets, which generated interest from people across the UK and Wales.
Buyers contacted Bowden via email and telephone and arranged to pay hundreds of pounds for tickets.
Once Bowden received the money he stopped communicating with his victims and never sent out any tickets.
He strung one person along until the day before the game. His victim, who was none the wiser, booked a hotel and train tickets only to find he had no ticket. Another victim expected to receive tickets in the post only to be sent nothing but an empty envelope by Bowden.
PC John Hockaday from the GMP Fraud Investigation Team said: "This was a game of huge significance and Bowden took advantage of people's desperation to get hold of tickets.
"His victims were not only conned out of hundreds of pounds of their hard-earned cash, but also met by a huge sense of disappointment when they realised they wouldn't be going to a game they'd been looking forward to.
"Bowden thought he'd found an easy way to make some quick cash but as today's sentencing shows, this type of crime doesn't pay and we take it very seriously indeed ."