LFC player's uncle 'gave tickets to tout for cash'

42-YEAR-OLD'S SCAM WAS WORTH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS

- By ADAM EVERETT

THE uncle of a Liverpool FC first-team player handed over a “large amount” of match tickets to a tout in return for cash, a court has heard.

Joseph Johnson colluded with staff in the club’s ticket office and flogged passes to away games for up to £400.

His fraudulent scheme, which saw tickets resold at “significantly inflated prices”, spanned several years and involved the creation of more than 1,000 LFC memberships using fake names and details, generating hundreds of thousands of pounds in profits.

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court previously heard that Johnson and his co-defendants - Louis James, James Johnson, Liam Rice and Lee Smith - were “involved in a sophisticated ticket fraud’; whose “central purpose was to obtain as many Liverpool football tickets as possible”. These would then be resold “at significantly inflated prices via online secondary websites’ such as Viagogo, StubHub and Ticketbis.

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, described how both Louis James and James Johnson worked in the club's ticket office, with Johnson leaving the club in December 2017.