Ed Sheeran's team hail guilty verdicts for family of touts who 'exploited the ... trends now

Ed Sheeran's team have welcomed the convictions of a family of 'ticket touts' who 'exploited the love and passion' of music fans by selling tickets worth £6.5 million on secondary sites like Viagogo.

Lynda Chenery and Mark Woods were found guilty on Wednesday of fraudulent activity over their involvement in 'dishonest' Norfolk-based touting firm TQ Tickets Ltd.

Maria Chenery-Woods — who is Woods's wife and Chenery's sister — and Chenery's ex-husband Paul Douglas pleaded guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing.

Leeds Crown Court heard TQ Tickets used multiple identities, some fake, to buy large numbers of tickets for high profile music events such as Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga and Little Mix concerts on primary sites, including Ticketmaster.

The firm would then resell the tickets — often at vastly inflated prices — on secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo.

During the trial the jury heard statements from Mr Sheeran's manager Stuart Camp and promoter Stuart Galbraith, who described the 'extensive measures' they went to as they tried to prevent the re-selling of tickets at inflated prices for the singer's 2018 UK stadium tour.

Following the verdicts, Mr Galbraith said: 'Today's verdict is good news for live music fans, who are too often ripped off and exploited by greedy ticket touts.'

Mr Camp said: 'Ed Sheeran's 2018 summer stadium tour was when we really took a stand against online ticket touts. The low point for me had been one of his earlier Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, where tickets were listed on Viagogo for thousands of pounds, but with none of the money going to charity.

'Today's prosecution will help protect music fans and sets an important precedent in the live entertainment industry that I hope will be celebrated by live music fans.'

The case of those involved with TQ Tickets follows an almost identical prosecution by National Trading Standards of a married couple who ran the London-based firm BZZ.

BZZ's Peter Hunter and David Smith were jailed for four years and two and a half years respectively in February 2020, following a landmark trial, and they were subsequently ordered to pay back more than £6.2 million by the court.