Access All AreasA husband and wife convicted in 2012 of £2m fraud have been listing thousands of pounds worth of tickets through secondary ticketing sites, the Guardian has found.
Michael Mayiger and Michelle Meiger’s names recently appeared as the sellers of tickets for the Ed Sheeran gig at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow via Seatwave, a resale website owned by Ticketmaster.
The couple were convicted four years ago of fraud after they admitted to obtaining and selling hundred of Premier League tickets, some of which did not actually exist.
Mayiger is one of Ticketmaster’s ‘trusted sellers’, meaning he has been assessed by the company. Ticketmaster’s UK chair, Chris Edmonds, told MPs last year that the firm had a zero-tolerance policy on fraud.
A Ticketmaster spokesperson told Access: “Our resale sites, GET ME IN! and Seatwave, are safe and secure marketplaces where individuals are able to buy and resell tickets, with all purchases backed by our industry-leading fan guarantee. The seller has sold tickets to music fans on our secondary ticketing platforms for many years legitimately without issue.”
But campaigners for ticket reform spoke out about the revelation.
“This is a perfect example of why transparency is necessary to ensure fans have all the information at their fingertips so they are not ripped off by touts with who are known ticket fraudsters,” said Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on ticket abuse.
Seatwave has been under scrutiny by secondary ticketing critics in recent months: 200 fans were turned away from a Black Sabbath gig at The O2 in January 2017 after the London venue detected ticket fraud. The tickets had been bought via Seatwave.