Sheeran touts ordered to pay back £3m or face jail

A couple found guilty of a multi-million-pound ticket touting fraud have been ordered to pay back £3m within three months, or face jail.

Maria Chenery-Woods, 56, and her husband Mark Woods were sentenced in 2024 after their Norfolk-based business, TQ Tickets Ltd, was found to have used dozens of identities to buy tickets for acts such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga - before reselling them online, often at highly inflated prices.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, at Leeds Crown Court, told Chenery-Woods she must pay £995,279 within weeks or face a further four years in jail.

Woods must pay £2m by April - or face seven years and six months in prison. 

Chenery-Woods, of Dickleburgh, Norfolk, was sentenced to four years in prison at Leeds Crown Court in May 2024.

Woods, 61, also of Dickleburgh, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work. He was also told he must observe an electronically monitored overnight curfew for four months.

Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU), who brought the case, said the pair profited "to the tune of £9,815,351.52 which must be repaid in full".

Det Ch Insp Jon Hodgeon, from YHROCU, said: "Following their sentencing, our financial investigators stepped in and conducted a detailed analysis of the money made by Woods and Chenery-Woods."

He said they used "dishonest tactics to exploit people".

The pair acquired tickets from reputable sellers including Ticketmaster, Eventim, SEE Tickets and ACS and used fake identities to resell the tickets at significantly higher prices on secondary ticketing sites such as Viagogo, Seatwave, Stubhub and Getmein, YHROCU said.

Chenery-Woods was subject to a benefit figure of £7,842,799.35 which would remain a debt until paid in full and the sum for Woods was £1,972,552.17, it added.

Mike Andrews, national coordinator with the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, said the ruling was "good news for fans and shows that crime does not pay, as the criminals must pay back the vast profits they generated illegally while they continue to face time behind bars".

During the trial, the jury heard statements from Ed Sheeran's manager Stuart Camp and promoter Stuart Galbraith, who described the "extensive measures" they went to in a bid to prevent the re-selling of tickets at inflated prices for the singer's 2018 UK stadium tour.