/Suspended sentences for festival ticket scam pair

Suspended sentences for festival ticket scam pair

Two ex-Southampton Solent University students who created a scam website selling fake music festival tickets have been given suspended jail terms. The individuals in question, Dale Frost and David Martins, both aged 21, are believed to have made about £11,000 from the bogus ticket website which they established. It is believed that during 2009, 80 people paid up to £250 each for tickets from the website the students had created. Both of the students, Frost and Martins, pleaded guilty to the two offences under the Fraud and Companies Acts.

They were both sentenced to 45 weeks and suspended for two years. Frost of Radcliffe Road and Martins of Milton Road were also ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service and to pay £1,067 in compensation and £1,250 costs at Southampton Crown Court. The website established was called Z Tickets and was created by the students whilst studying towards degrees in business studies and web design. When it was discovered that the students had set up a bogus ticket website they were both thrown off their courses by the university. Southampton Trading Standards stated, “The site displayed logos and pictures lifted from genuine event sites including the Download, Isle of Wight and Reading Festivals. However, buried deep in the terms and conditions on the website was a brief mention of the fact that the tickets would not guarantee entry into the event – that would be at the discretion of the event organisers”