A football tout who described himself as 'billy big balls' has been jailed for his role in a sophisticated ticket fraud scheme that made hundreds of thousands of pounds. Joseph Johnson, 31, was part of a group that created over 1,000 fake Liverpool FC memberships to buy discounted tickets and resell them at inflated prices on secondary websites.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the operation grew 'from bedroom computers to an operational, international business' with a base in Dubai. Johnson's co-defendants included Louis James and James Johnson, who worked in Liverpool's ticket office and used their insider knowledge to obtain tickets before they were available to the public.
The fraud was uncovered in February 2018 when suspicious sales of local general sale tickets, priced at £9 for Liverpool postcode residents, were flagged. An investigation revealed that Louis James had processed up to 50 such tickets per home game. On one occasion, he was seen being collected from the stadium by Joseph Johnson in a white Mercedes 4x4 and later observed hiding envelopes containing tickets at his desk.
Police analysis of James's mobile phone uncovered nearly a quarter of a million messages and 27,000 images. The group's resale business, Seatfinder UK, was registered in Dubai and operated from an office in Kirkby. Data from StubHub showed sales worth €598,746 (around £520,000) between 2016 and 2018.
In WhatsApp messages, Johnson boasted: 'I'm the man in Liverpool, my b****cks are massive, billy big balls.' James replied: 'I'm the one in the underworld no one knows about.' Johnson was jailed for three years and four months, while other defendants received suspended sentences.
