Lewis Hudson, 40, tricked two hotels into handing him hospitality packages for last year’s Champions League Final in Cardiff to sell on the black market
A football fraudster was today jailed for scamming £150,000 of VIP ticket to the Champions League final.
Lewis Hudson, 40, tricked two hotels into handing him hospitality packages for last year’s Champions League Final in Cardiff to sell on the black market.
He pretended to be a hotel guest and then gave a fake name to staff to ask if packages for him had been delivered.
He was then handed tickets worth £60,600 and hospitality packages worth £84,000 for the game between Real Madrid and Juventus in Cardiff.
One of the hotels Hudson targeted had tickets meant for VIP customers including politicians, celebrities, sporting icons and royalty.
But before the game last June officials realised the tickets had been stolen and issued all the prestigious guests with replacements.
Hudson of Manchester, was later identified by CCTV and later arrested at Silverstone where he was trying to sell fake motor racing tickets.
He was jailed for 20 months at Cardiff Crown Court.
Speaking after the sentence Detective Constable Gillon Neal, said: ‘Lewis Hudson is a career conman who travelled to south Wales looking to cash in on a fortune, regardless of the consequences that it could have had for so many people.
‘It was fraud on a big scale but luckily thanks to the contingencies put in place by Uefa those who had tickets stolen could still enjoy what they came for.
‘Using the hotel’s CCTV, we were able to pick out who was responsible and share good quality stills with the media – he was quickly identified and in August he was caught, this time at Silverstone.
Hudson, pictured, was later identified from the CCTV footage and arrested while trying to sell fake tickets at Silverstone. The 40-year-old conman from Manchester was jailed for 20 months
Detective Constable Gillon Neal, said: ‘Lewis Hudson is a career conman who travelled to south Wales looking to cash in on a fortune, regardless of the consequences that it could have had for so many people’
‘Conmen like him are able to make huge sums of money but they are motivated by a thriving black market fuelled by people who let nothing get in the way of seeing their favourite music act or sports team and are willing to get their hands on a ticket wherever it has come from.
‘I would urge buyers to think twice about what they are doing and to consider the consequences that their unscrupulous buying has upon those who have had tickets stolen.’