Prestwich Ticket tout given banning order for illegal sale of MUFC tickets

Date published: 26 October 2011

Five ticket touts involved in the unauthorised sale of Manchester United FC (MUFC) season tickets have been sentenced.

Following a trial at Trafford Magistrates Court today, Wednesday 26 October 2011, Michael Mulheir, Droylsden, was convicted of ticket touting and fined £1,290 and given a three-year banning order.

The following admitted ticket touting and were sentenced on Monday 24 October 2011 at Trafford Magistrates Court:

Anthony Barry Jones, Northenden, fined a total of £515 and given a three-year football banning order.

Karl Rowe, Northwich, fined a total of £665 and given a four-year football banning order.

Mark Rowe, Gatley, fined a total of £615 and given a three-year football banning order.

Christopher Fallon, Prestwich, fined a total of £225 and given a three-year football banning order.

All five were arrested as part of a covert investigation, codenamed Operation Pickup.

Officers from Trafford carried out the operation at four MUFC home matches: on 24 April 2010; 9 May 2010; 28 August 2010; culminating with the match against West Bromwich Albion on 16 October 2010.

The gang predominantly worked from a hotel opposite the stadium and advertised the tickets for sale on the internet. They also had a well established customer base.

Many customers were one-off visitors from abroad, with some coming from as far as Europe and USA and paying as much as £200 to watch one game.

The customers attended the hotel before and after the game to collect/drop-off the tickets, which were either paid for on the day or in advance.

All six were arrested outside the hotel following the match on 16 October 2010.

Karl Rowe was seen collecting tickets from fans returning from the ground. He was found to be in possession of 20 MUFC season tickets and £955. His car was parked nearby and inside was two MUFC executive member tickets.

Mark Rowe was found to be in possession of 17 MUFC season tickets, two MUFC executive member tickets, two tickets for Tottenham Hotspur's home match against Inter Milan and £314.69.

Fallon had in his possession two MUFC season tickets and two MUFC executive member tickets. In his car officers recovered two tickets for MUFC v Wolverhampton Wanderers and two tickets for the Merseyside derby (Liverpool v Everton).

Twenty-eight season tickets and £345 was seized from Anthony Jones and £355.10 was recovered from Michael Mulheir, along with a typed document headed Utd v WBA, which detailed seating arrangements for a number of different people.

In total 83 tickets, all registered in different names to the defendants, were seized following the match with West Brom. They were checked and the majority were found to have been scanned through the gates (allowing entry into the ground) that day.

A total of £2075.14 was seized.

The season tickets were returned to MUFC.

Detective Constable Paul Walls, said: "These men ran an efficient and highly organised illegal operation, selling much sought after football tickets at greatly inflated prices to simply line their own pockets.

"Manchester United has a global fan base and tickets quickly sell out for each and every game. They were all fully aware of this and used it to their advantage, charging some people as much as £200 for a single match.

"I must also condemn those registered ticket holders who have allowed their tickets to be used in this scam, again for the sake of a few extra quid."