Anyone who has bought fake tickets knows how horrible scalping is.
Charmaine Bowers, a 23 year old aspiring model from the UK has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for over £100,000 (roughly $150,00 USD) Tomorrowland ticket fraud. Charmaine Bowers pleaded guilty on six counts of ticket fraud by false representation. Bowers has been called the ‘female Walter Witty’, in reference to Breaking Bad's Walter White. 300 victims were scammed out of their money by Bowers. The way she printed the fake tickets was through access to promotional tickets from modeling with Nuts Magazine. Charmaine's mother, Tina, used her office printer for professional quality tickets and confirmation slips. The money was deposited in Tina Bowers’ account and spent on extravagant holidays and other expenses.
Prosecutor Harrop spoke in regards to the hearing pleased with the justice that had been served, and expressed his disgust for the crime:
“Charmaine Bowers has been dishonest and devious to her victims and also to police throughout the investigation.
She was a complete fantastist that made honest people believe that she was a Nuts model and a model scout building her ‘Walter Mitty’ persona using social media to carry out her crime.
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, jewellery and Clothes.
What was particularly sickening was her reference to ‘Happy Money’ on her bank accounts when transfering 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.”
The bottom line is, wherever there are tickets to be sold, there will always be someone who tries to scam people out of their money for their own benefit. Fans of all genres of music can relate to the experience of ticket scalpers and how frustrating it is to see ticket prices skyrocket. However, fraud is an even more serious crime and luckily for those violated, Charmaine Bowers was caught red handed.
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Source: Lincoln Echo
