Ever paid over the 半端物s for a must have ticket because they've all been snapped up by greedy touts? The husband of the 'Ticket Queen' this week 罪人/有罪を宣告するd of fraudulent 貿易(する)ing says his wife is 'broken' and he is just 'collateral 損失'

  • The 法廷,裁判所 設立する 47,000 tickets had been 購入(する)d in the immoral 商売/仕事 操作/手術 using 127, 187 email 演説(する)/住所s and 200 郵便の 演説(する)/住所s
  • £6.5m was made from the sale of the tickets - much of which was 利益(をあげる)?
  • Some tickets were sold to desperate fans for ten times their 額面価格?

She was known as the Ticket Queen; and the tickets Maria Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd touted certainly (機の)カム with 王室の price tags.

One pair of tickets for the sought-after Last Night Of The Proms, an event concert-goers typically only become 適格の to buy tickets for if they …に出席する other concerts in the 王室の Albert Hall series, sold for £462 each, a whopping ten times the £47 額面価格.

Then there were the in-需要・要求する seats at the West End 生産/産物 of Harry Potter And The 悪口を言う/悪態d Child ― two tickets in the 立ち往生させるs at £725 each, a 示す-up of more than 500 per cent.

Taylor Swift at Wembley, boxer Anthony Joshua taking on Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley, Cirque du Soleil, Ed Sheeran; whatever 業績/成果 the 顧客 was looking for, Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd, or more pointedly her 商売/仕事, TQ Tickets (the TQ standing for Ticket Queen) was the woman with the answer.

Maria Chenery-Woods made £6.5m during her immoral tick-touting business operation

Maria Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd made £6.5m during her immoral tick-touting 商売/仕事 操作/手術?

Indeed, so comprehensively did Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd, a 54-year-old mother-of-three, 逮捕(する) her particular corner of the lucrative, but morally and 合法的に murky world of ticket touting, that in a two-year period her 会社/堅い sold an 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の £6.5 million in tickets.

The fraudulent 企業 was 設立するd on one immutable truth: the passion of innocent fans for their favourite artists.

Thus, operating from a barn 転換 in the Norfolk village of Dickleburgh and nearby offices, Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd and her team ― 含むing her husband 示す 支持を得ようと努めるd, 60, sister Lynda Chenery, 51, and Lynda's former husband Paul Douglas, 56 ― oversaw a 計画/陰謀 in which they would hoover up 合法的 tickets through fraudulent means and then sell them on at sky-high prices.

In their 使節団 to 蓄積する tickets, there were, it would seem, no lengths to which the family would not go; the 身元s of the Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd' children (the youngest just ten years old) were used to buy tickets under 多重の 指名するs; they even (軍隊を)展開する,配備する d the 指名する and 演説(する)/住所 of the sisters' dead uncle to 支える their ticket 供給(する)s.

The unscrupulous workings of the 'family 商売/仕事' were laid 明らかにする this week, when 示す 支持を得ようと努めるd and Lynda Chenery were 全員一致で 設立する 有罪の of fraudulent 貿易(する)ing at the end of a 裁判,公判 brought by 貿易(する)ing 基準s at 物陰/風下d 栄冠を与える 法廷,裁判所; Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd and Douglas had already 認める the same 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 and all four now を待つ 宣告,判決.

She operated the business out of her sprawling cottage home in Norfolk

She operated the 商売/仕事 out of her sprawling cottage home in Norfolk

Fraudulent 貿易(する)ing carries a ten-year 最大限 刑務所,拘置所 宣告,判決.

When 国家の 貿易(する)ing 基準s 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金d the 被告s in the TQ Tickets 事例/患者, it also brought a 類似の 犯罪の 起訴 against a couple who ran a 類似の London-based 会社/堅い BZZ. Peter Hunter and David Smith were 刑務所,拘置所d for four years and 30 months それぞれ in February 2020, and were later ordered by the 法廷,裁判所 to 支払う/賃金 支援する more than £6.2 million.

So just who is the self-肩書を与えるd Ticket Queen (her co-conspirator Douglas called himself Ticket Boy) and how did an outwardly respectable mother from 田舎の Norfolk, a 'village girl' as 観察者/傍聴者s 発言/述べるd to the Mail this week, become queen of the touts?

At the sprawling £700,000 変えるd home with swimming pool and assorted outbuildings where Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd and her salesman husband live, there was no 指示,表示する物 that this was once the bustling 中心 of a multi-million 続けざまに猛撃する 商売/仕事.

Nobody answered the door of the 所有物/資産/財産, but 示す 支持を得ようと努めるd, who as an (n)役員/(a)執行力のある with a tech company was able to 得る NFL tickets to be resold, does speak to me on the phone, 抗議するing his innocence and studiously 持続するing that even now ― six years after 貿易(する)ing 基準s 捜査官/調査官s 急襲するd ― that he still didn't 完全に understand 'where things went wrong' for his wife.

'Maria really isn't in a good place to talk about things,' he 主張するs. 'To be perfectly honest with you, she spends most of her time in bed. She is broken.'

The 実業家, who 供給するd more than £1 million to his wife's 会社/堅い to buy tickets and 供給(する)d 多重の debit and credit cards to help 支え(る) up the mammoth 企業, has more to say on his own 'innocence' than he does on the 活動/戦闘s of his wife.

'At the end of the day, I work in a different 産業, I didn't think my wife was doing anything untoward. My knowledge of her 商売/仕事 was probably about as good as hers of my 商売/仕事.

'I am just collateral 損失, I am just a husband who supported his wife at the end of the day.'

As for his wife, he 主張するs her 評判 was that of a 'decent, honest person'.

Mark Woods, the 'Ticket Queens' hu
sband is standing by his wife saying she is 'broken'

示す 支持を得ようと努めるd, the 'Ticket Queens' husband is standing by his wife 説 she is 'broken'

直面するd by the unpalatable truth that several 面s of the 事例/患者 against him and his wife (not least using the 詳細(に述べる)s of a dead family member) do not 正確に/まさに 叫び声をあげる honesty, he says: 'I agree with you. And for those 推論する/理由s there are things that need to be answered from Maria's 視野 and had I been more diligent, I think 事柄s may have been やめる different.

'But I 信用d her, I love her and for whatever 推論する/理由, things started to cross the line I guess, and that's a pity.'

He pauses, 追加するing: 'Understatement of the year.' やめる. Continuing in a 類似の vein, 示す 主張するs he, too, has been brought to the brink and, extraordinarily, paints himself as a 犠牲者.

'It's not a 殺人. At the end of the day I am just a broken man that wouldn't 傷つける a 飛行機で行く. I am very sad to feel at this 行う/開催する/段階 in my career that my 未来 is blighted and I stand to lose everything, for what?'

For what indeed. 示す might 抗議する that the family 企業 was a 'victimless 罪,犯罪'. But anyone who has paid through the nose for tickets, or worse, paid for tickets that 港/避難所't materialised would say さもなければ, as too might some of those associates roped in to the 操作/手術 to buy tickets to be resold in 交流 for 'perks' such as 妨害するs, gift 保証人/証拠物件s or even a 削減(する) of the 利益(をあげる)s.

The pair were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court for their huge ticket-touting operation

The pair were 設立する 有罪の at 物陰/風下d 栄冠を与える 法廷,裁判所 for their 抱擁する ticket-touting 操作/手術

As Lord (Michael) Bichard, chairman of 国家の 貿易(する)ing 基準s, said in the wake of the 判決s: 'Millions of people spend their hard-earned money on tickets for music concerts and 冒険的な events each year. Buying a ticket in good 約束 and discovering it is part of a fraudulent scam can be 深く,強烈に 苦しめるing and can have a かなりの 財政上の 衝撃 on 消費者s.'

やめる how much Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd and co have made from their sophisticated 計画/陰謀 is 不明瞭な, but Ruth Andrews, who led the team 調査/捜査するing the family, says a 重要な 割合 of the money raked in by TQ Tickets was 利益(をあげる), running into 'millions'.

It could not be その上の 除去するd from the family 商売/仕事 into which sisters Maria and Lynda Chenery were born, daughters of a 井戸/弁護士席-known Norfolk 実業家 who ran a large coach company, until his death in 1993.

'Her father would turn over in his 墓/厳粛/彫る/重大な if he knew [what she had done]; he was a hardworking 実業家,' says one family friend.

TQ Tickets was 会社にする/組み込むd in 2006 with both Che nery-支持を得ようと努めるd and her husband as directors and her sister as company 長官. It 速く grew from a travel company, selling tickets and 輸送(する) to events, into something else 完全に.

And while Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd, who keeps chickens at her comfortable village home, was the '運動ing 軍隊' of the dishonest 計画/陰謀 (she was 'obsessed with ticket touting,' the 法廷,裁判所 heard), all four had 'important 役割s' to play.

Many 商売/仕事s use company credit cards; but when 捜査官/調査官s (警察の)手入れ,急襲d the 会社/堅い's offices they 回復するd 124 different debit and credit cards.

The 法廷,裁判所 heard that between June 2015 and December 2017, they had 購入(する)d 47,000 tickets, using 127 指名するs, 187 email 演説(する)/住所s and 200 郵便の 演説(する)/住所s.

Taylor Swift's Wembley concert was one of the many tickets sold at an extortionate price

Taylor Swift's Wembley concert was one of the many tickets sold at an extortionate price

In 商売/仕事, there is a long tradition of goods 存在 購入(する)d at one price, and sold at another, but Ticket Queen's practices (the now 消滅した/死んだ company's Facebook and Twitter 料金d both 陳列する,発揮する the 指名する Ticket Queen rather than TQ Tickets) were far いっそう少なく transparent.

最初の/主要な ticket 販売人s such as Ticketmaster, See Tickets and the like often use an 自動化するd system to 封鎖する 多重の 購入(する)s and keep touting at bay, but team TQ 回避するd this by さまざまな methods, 含むing using specialist ソフトウェア to 隠す their unique IP 演説(する)/住所, enabling them to hoover up tickets.

The tickets were then resold on the 第2位 marketplace ― 場所/位置s such as Viagogo, Seatwave, StubHub and GetMeIn ― often at vastly inflated prices.

いつかs tickets advertised to the unsuspecting public wouldn't even 存在する at point of sale ― a practice known as 'spec selling'. Take, for instance, Ed Sheeran's hotly-心配するd 小旅行する of 2018; the 陪審/陪審員団 was shown 証拠 of TQ 偽名,通称s selling tickets on Viagogo hours before promoters opened the actual sale in July 2017.

Once the sale did open, a 大規模な shopping 企業 began, one 労働者 誇るing in messages of having 38 web browsers open at the same time ーするために 得る as much 在庫/株 as possible.

If tickets didn't materialise, there was always the 選択 of 'doing a fraudie', sending 顧客s an empty, ripped envelope to 暗示する the contents had been lost in 輸送, or using '詐欺 juice' (Tipp-Ex 訂正するing fluid) or more sophisticated methods to 修正する tickets.

While company accounts 持続するd a 'veneer of legitimacy' 経由で the 会社/堅い's 初めの 企業 in events travel; the reality was different. Staff revelled in the greedy 計画/陰謀.

Messages between Douglas and his then wife were read out in 法廷,裁判所 in which he wrote 'f*** me. I've rinsed some tw*t on 経由で [Viagogo] today'. Lynda, who (人命などを)奪う,主張するd she 簡単に did some 調書をとる/予約する-keeping for her sister, replied: 'Not unusual though, is it?'

Another Skype message from Douglas to Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd was even clearer. The 目的 of the 商売/仕事, he said, was to, '簡単に ri nse 消費者s for as much 利益(をあげる) as they are willing to 支払う/賃金'.

In the village of Dickleburgh this week the goings on at TQ Tickets were still very much a topic of conversation. Sisters Maria and Lynda grew up in the village with its 中世 church; Maria going on to work for her father's coach 商売/仕事 and Lynda working for pregnancy and parenting club Bounty as a 長官 before the siblings began working together.

Another of the high-priced tickets sold was for the world-famous Cirque Du Soleil

Another of the high-定価つきの tickets sold was for the world-famous Cirque Du Soleil

Both sisters were 述べるd to us as '負かす/撃墜する to earth', both raised families and were rooted in village life. What went wrong?

'What made them do it was they were making good money,' says a family friend. Not that 部外者s knew just how good things were.

'When Maria started the company, people knew she was making a 殺人,大当り, but they had no idea of the extent of it.'

Certainly both couples appear to have enjoyed life. 'Maria idolised her kids, apart from that, she just 手配中の,お尋ね者 the good life ― not the high life, just a good life, she liked her holidays, but wasn't one to go out and buy exotic 着せる/賦与するs.'

支持を得ようと努めるd, によれば 村人s, was the flashier half of the 関係. A 'big-長,率いる', says one, while another 追加するs, more charitably, 'You liked him, but he was 十分な of himself, but then most salesmen are.'

Both 支持を得ようと努めるd and Douglas, who has 分裂(する) from his wife since his 逮捕(する), are understood to own 多重の 所有物/資産/財産s in the UK and abroad. Douglas, who once worked as a mechanic and fitter in the Chenery coach 商売/仕事, advertises an apartment with swimming pool on the island of Ciovo, in Croatia for holiday 賃貸しのs.

The two families enjoyed holidays to Croatia, while Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd' social マスコミ pages 文書s その上の travels 同様に as trips to the シャンペン酒 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 at upmarket department 蓄える/店 Harvey Nichols in London.

In the village, opinion is divided on what the family did.

Ken Bobbins, 77, who lives with wife Val in the manor house that 隣人s the Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd abode, says: 'Some people in the village were やめる angry and others were very 同情的な. It's village life, people knew Maria and 示す and felt a bit let 負かす/撃墜する.'

Last Night At The Proms is usually only on offer to people who have been to certain shows

Last Night At The Proms is usually only on 申し込む/申し出 to people who have been to 確かな shows

As to his own feelings, he says: 'Maria was always the first to help anybody if they were in a muddle and people have a lot of time for her. She just 設立する a market she was good at. It 発展させるd from working for her dad's company and, as 示す said in 法廷,裁判所, it became an obsession, she would be up at midnight trying to 得る tickets and sell them.'

He is pragmatic about what his friends did.

'I'm not 説 their practices were 100 per cent. But I have bought tickets from them.

'My wife and I go to concerts on a 正規の/正選手 basis and you can't get tickets, so what's the 代案/選択肢? You have to find someone who's going to sell you a ticket.'

As to whether 司法(官) has been served, he says: 'The essence is that these ticket promoters take the 平易な 選択. Whichever way you look at it, it's not just Maria and 示す, it's many, many other people doing it at 正確に/まさに the same time.'

Next door, the Chenery-支持を得ようと努めるd, whose youngest son is just 16, を待つ their 運命/宿命. How much of their ill-gotten 伸び(る)s is left, will be the 支配する of a Proceeds of 罪,犯罪 行為/法令/行動する 審理,公聴会 in 未来.

示す 支持を得ようと努めるd is both 防御の and aggrieved. He swings from 暗示するing his wife was 簡単に 'entrepreneurial' to 譲歩するing that lines were crossed, albeit she would not have crossed them (his words) if she had realised 操作/手術s were 違法な.

As for himself, he says he is 'numb' that his defence, that he was not part of the 商売/仕事, nor did he 利益 from it, was not 受託するd.

'Supporting it from a matrimonial 視野, that is what husbands and wives do for each other and that has been my undoing I am afraid.

The West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was one of many tickets sold

The West End 生産/産物 of Harry Potter and the 悪口を言う/悪態d Child was one of many tickets sold

'I have lived here since 1993, I bought my house before I met Maria, is that fair game? I have not 利益d from any 罪,犯罪, it's nuts.'

Listen to 示す, and you could be 説得するd that tickets sold at vastly inflated prices do no 害(を与える).

'Nobody ever 軍隊d anybody to buy anything,' he says. 'To the best of my knowledge nobody ever got 傷つける, to me it looks like a victimless 罪,犯罪, if you can categorise it as a 罪,犯罪. People like to 引用する a 500 per cent 増加する in sale price, but nobody wants to 報告(する)/憶測 on tickets bought under value. Plenty of people have, it would seem, 利益d from the 第2位 ticket market.'

Try telling that to the 集まりs of live music fans who have been ripped off at the 手渡すs of 冷笑的な touts like this unrepentant bunch.

付加 報告(する)/憶測ing: Chris Brooke and Stephanie Condron