A notorious ticket tout known as the 'Ticket Queen' has been given a stark ultimatum: repay £1 million within three months or see her four-year prison sentence doubled.
Multi-Million Pound Fraud Uncovered
Maria Chenery-Woods, 56, was jailed last year for running a multi-million pound ticket fraud operation. She and her husband, Mark Woods, 61, used the identities of dead relatives and children to purchase tickets for live events on what prosecutors described as an 'industrial scale'. The couple, from Dickleburgh in Norfolk, then resold the tickets on secondary websites at massively inflated prices, exploiting desperate fans.
The Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU) stated the pair made a total of £9,815,351 from their scheme, all of which must eventually be repaid in full. At a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Leeds Crown Court, Chenery-Woods was ordered to pay £995,278 by this spring. Her husband, who received a suspended sentence, must hand over £1.9 million by April or face a seven-and-a-half-year prison term.
A Web of Deceit and Greed
The fraudsters used over 120 false identities and 187 email addresses to circumvent purchase limits on reputable primary sites like Ticketmaster and SEE Tickets. They then sold the tickets via platforms including Viagogo, Seatwave, and Stubhub for huge profits, funding a luxury lifestyle of exotic holidays and champagne bars.
The court heard their company, TQ Tickets, bought 47,000 tickets between June 2015 and December 2017. The scam corrupted others, including students and friends, who were persuaded to use their own details to buy tickets in exchange for a share of profits, hampers, or gift vouchers. Chenery-Woods's own TV producer daughter and her sister's son were also drawn into the operation.
Examples of their profiteering were stark:
- Two £47 tickets for the Last Night of the Proms sold for £924.
- Two £80 tickets for an Anthony Joshua boxing fight each sold for £418.
- Stalls tickets for the Harry Potter play in the West End were marked up by over 500%, selling for £725 each.
Justice Served and a Warning to Others
Sentencing the group, Judge Simon Batiste said the firm 'created a web of criminality' driven purely by greed, with the aim to 'rinse or fleece customers'. Other defendants included employee Paul Douglas, jailed for over two years, and Chenery-Woods's sister, Lynda Chenery, who received a suspended sentence.
Detective Chief Inspector Jon Hodgeon of YHROCU said: 'I am pleased that they have now been ordered to repay this money or face more jail time. The YHROCU will relentlessly pursue offenders using all available powers.' Mike Andrews of the National Trading Standards eCrime Team added the ruling was 'good news for fans' and showed 'crime does not pay'.
The case adds momentum to the crackdown on exploitative secondary ticketing. In November, the Government revealed plans to make it illegal to resell tickets for concerts, sports, and theatre events above their original face value, following campaigns by artists like Dua Lipa and Radiohead.
