Ex-Liverpool employees accused of 'sophisticated ticket fraud and colluding with touts' to make huge profits, as trial begins

Ex-Liverpool employees have been accused of involvement in a fraudulent scheme to collude with touts and resell tickets at massively inflated prices. 

In a conspiracy alleged to have run for years and generated hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit, tickets were said to have been resold on websites such as Viagogo and StubHub. 

The trial began on Wednesday at Liverpool Crown Court, with five men and two women making up the defendants. 

Prosecutor Nicola Daley told a jury: 'In simple terms, each of the defendants on trial before you are said to have been involved in a sophisticated ticket fraud.

'The central purpose of this fraud was to obtain as many Liverpool football tickets as possible, the prosecution say by various dishonest means, in order to then resell those tickets at significantly inflated prices via online secondary websites such as Viagogo, StubHub and Ticketbis. As time went on, the fraud was extended beyond Liverpool Football Club to the obtaining, by dishonest, means and then reselling of tickets to matches for other Premier League football clubs as well.'

Two of the accused Louis James, 37, and James Johnson, 42, worked in the Liverpool ticket office. James had worked for Liverpool in the ticket office on a casual basis since 2002 before a full-time role in 2016. Johnson was a tour guide for the club before moving to an 'identical position' in 2014 before leaving three years later. 

The club noticed that £9 tickets created for fans living in the city had been sold online before being made available to supporters. 

This led to an internal investigation by the club, which found the same credit card had been used to purchase multiple tickets under different names. 

The password 'Luis7' was used and many email addresses formatted in a similar way and James was found to have been 'responsible for processing somewhere between 40 to 50 local general tickets sales per home game'. 

James was then followed and watched by a senior member of Liverpool staff, who saw him picked up by co-defendant Joseph Johnson, no relation to James Johnson,  in a white Mercedes 4x4 at the stadium. 

James then went to the booth of his ticket office and was watched while removing around 30 envelopes containing tickets, season passes and membership cards from storage boxes and 'secreting them at his desk', the court heard. 

Liverpool's internal investigation led to James being sacked and the matter reported to Merseyside Police. 

His phone was taken and 27,000 pictures and almost 250,000 messages analysed  

The prosecutor told the jury: 'Messages extracted from Louis James' phone, in fact, tell you the story, what was going on. Ultimately, piecing together lots of different things, the police discovered that over 1,000 memberships appear to have either been created or used in relation to Liverpool FC tickets as part of this. 

'Messages between the defendants showed the almost daily, minute by minute, exchange about tickets between Louis James and Joseph Johnson from 2016 onwards.

In one message, James told James Johnson: 'My mate has 22 membership cards. Say you make £40 on each ticket for every home game, you get around £15,000. You would get more than that though, the big games would fetch well more.'

Of Joseph Johnson, the prosecutor said: 'Undoubtedly, he was a successful ticket tout. He was operating, the prosecution say, across the United Kingdom, predominantly selling football tickets. Much of the evidence will relate to Liverpool FC tickets, but you will also see him selling tickets for other clubs.

'It is not clear when Joseph Johnson first secured the help of Louis James. But what is evident is that there was a clear business relationship between them that had started, at least, by 2016.'

James previously admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

Johnson pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position and three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. 

He was said to have used defendants Lee Smith and Liam Rice, parents Angela and David Johnson and girlfriend Sian Woodyatt as part of the conspiracy, allegedly by 'using their bank cards with their knowledge to buy memberships and tickets'. 

They deny the involvement in the conspiracy and have pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to continue for weeks.