A mum-of-four sold her son’s bank card to fraudsters who were laundering the profits of a £100,000 Liverpool FC forged tickets scam .
Craig O’Donohue and Paul Murgatroyd conned hundreds of victims who paid inflated prices to watch the Reds play at Anfield.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Stephanie Oliver, 33, was one of nine people who decided to ‘make easy money’ by allowing their bank accounts to be used by the pair.
Oliver, of Bedford Road, Walton, sold both her and her son’s bank cards to the pair, allowing them to channel around £4,500 through two accounts.
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said: “There is evidence from others at the same level as her that in effect they were being paid a few hundred pounds for this.”
(Left to right): Craig O’Donohue, 29; Paul Murgatroyd, 28.
O’Donohue, 29, and Murgatroyd, 28, advertised tickets for high-profile home games, including a fixture against Real Madrid, on the website Craiglist.
Many of those tricked were Liverpool fans from abroad who had also spent large sums of money on flights to Merseyside and booked hotels.
The conmen would meet their victims in the city centre and carry out the bogus transactions, with fans desperate to get inside Anfield paying as much as £260 for tickets.
The pair placed 1,315 website adverts between September 2014 and April last year, snaring victims who flew to Liverpool from countries including Italy and Iceland.
Merseyside Police became involved when a lawyer from Florida complained he had been duped when buying a ticket for a match against West Bromwich Albion.
Detectives launched an undercover operation to catch O’Donohue and Murgatroyd, putting them under surveillance and sending detectives to buy fake tickets.
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The pair were watched by police going into a series of bookmakers, where they played on casino machines to launder cash.
When officers raided Murgatroyd’s house, they seized forged tickets and Hewlett Packard printers.
The fraudsters used blank ticket books, which they had intercepted and stolen from Liverpool FC , when they were being transported to a shredder.
In November, O’Donohue, of Harrow Road, Anfield, was jailed for four years. Murgatroyd, of Richmond Park, Anfield, was jailed for three and a half years.
Oliver, with her brown hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a blue tracksuit in the dock, admitted converting criminal property.
Kenneth Grant, defending, asked for credit for his client’s guilty plea.
Judge Denis Watson, QC, said: “You sold two cards, yours and your son’s. You played an important and valuable role when you did that, because just short of £4,500 was channelled through your account in just over three weeks.
“You have four children, you’re on benefits, you struggle with your finances, you have an alcohol problem and you are registered as alcohol dependant with your doctor.”
He handed Oliver a nine-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and told her to attend Liverpool Women’s Turnaround Project for up to 20 sessions.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/