Fans who bought Tomorrowland tickets from Charmaine Bowers, 23, and her mother Tina Bowers, 51, were in for some unfortunate news, as the two women were arrested by UK authorities after selling over $150,000 worth of counterfeit tickets between December 2012 and July 2013.
The two were sentenced to two years and three months in prison, after a police investigation revealed the extent of their fraud. Not only did the Bowers women scam “at least 311” people, but they faked confirmation slips and turned their clients into patsies by listing them to sell additional festival bands. Both pleaded guilty to all six counts of fraud by false representation.
Apparently, Charmaine Bowers claimed to be earning money as a model for Nuts Magazine, which entitled her to access promotional tickets to the festival. She also created fake social media pages to corroborate her stories, with an ‘Emily Stevens’ character that entrusted Bowers to sell the tickets. Meanwhile, Tina Bowers was able to use her employer’s computer to create and produce fake and elaborate bar codes for the event.
The prosecutor of the case said the following:
Charmaine Bowers has been dishonest and devious to her victims and also to police throughout the investigation. She has never worked but having defrauded victims of their money has managed to spend £70,000 in four months on living the good life which had included holidays to Denmark and Rome, cruise holidays for her parents, as well as TVs, computers and mobile phones, jewelry and clothes. What was particularly sickening was her reference to ‘Happy Money’ on her bank accounts when transferring her ill-gotten gains to her mother’s bank account. There was nothing happy about the loss to the victims who were mostly young 18 to 30 year olds with little disposable income. Other victims have included veteran servicemen just back from Afghanistan on leave.
He continued, saying, “I hope the custodial sentence given will allow Charmaine and Tina Bowers time to consider their crime and impact they had on their victims.”
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at Cash or Trade for keeping ticket trading safe and accountable!
[Via Lincolnshire Echo]