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Dateline: 23rd June, 2006
Ticket Touts Prosecuted Westminster Coucil has taken two West End ticket touts to court for breaching regulations and both prosecutions were successful. Clive Moss, trading as Albany Tickets in the doorway of a Leicester Square nightclub, admitted four counts of failing to charge a consumer the face value of the ticket and two counts of failing to give proper information on the location of the seats between September 2004 and June 2005. One customer, an undercover trading standards officer, was charged a 500% mark-up on the face value of the ticket. Moss was ordered to pay ordered to pay a record sum of more than £17,000 in fines and legal costs. Also prosecuted was Patrycja Szwarczynska, trading as Covent Garden Tickets Ltd from a kiosk in James Street near the Covent Garden piazza, and she was fined over £16,000 for failing to adhere to ticket resale regulations. Councillor Audrey Lewis, Cabinet Member for Community Protection, said, "It is a great day (the prosecution of Moss) for theatregoers. We have been cracking down hard on people who resell theatre tickets dishonestly and Albany Tickets was the worst offender we've dealt with by far. Most of the 125 complaints were from tourists and it's very sad to think that this man ruined their visit to the West End. Thank goodness the magistrates have made it clear that they agree by handing out the biggest fine seen so far." "Both of these kiosks operated in popular tourist areas, preying largely on visitors to London," added Paul James, Commercial Manager of SOLT (the Society of London Theatre)." In the Leicester Square area in particular there are many outlets purporting to be ‘official half price ticket booths’. Bargain-hunters who want to shop safely should remember that there is in fact only one official discount ticket booth in Central London – the tkts booth in the Clocktower Building in Leicester Square." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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