You know, several years ago we would “name and shame” those elements of this industry who were quite simply, scammers.
Ten minutes later, the telephones would light up and the screaming and shouting would start – “who do you think you are? calling us crooks? You should shut up and know what you are talking about!” On more than one ocassion this office has received a telephone call that was little more than thinly veiled threat. Well guess what? We are still here and ALL of those people have now been charged AND CONVICTED in many cases, of fraud.

John Kokoulis “John of Herts” – Paperticket, the footballticketshop, Herts Box Office – has been found guilty of fraud this week. Finally.

But at what cost? As usual, the taxpayer pays. Pays for the investigation, pays for the trial, pays for the – dare we say it?
The situation is out of control. There needs to be a scheme whereby the public can tell the crooks from the brokers. It is long overdue and we would argue it should be an industry sponsored scheme, why should the public continue to pay? The industry should pay, the industry should keep it’s own house in order. We don’t need any more laws and we don’t need another government inquiry, enough time and money has been expended. We need DIRECTION.

Fortunately there are sufficient people who care that amazingly, this just might happen. We look forward to it.

Meanwhile, the one positive thing to come out of the whole Kokoulis debacle is a bit of case law which might just stop the scumbags in their tracks – If you don’t own the ticket – Speculative ticketing – It Is Fraud.

Clear enough? We think so.