Firms fined for illegal 2012 Olympics ticket sales
- Published
Three firms have been fined for illegally selling tickets for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Sportsworld Group Ltd was ordered to pay £50,000 after being found guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court of breaching Olympic ticket legislation.
Events International and Imperial Corporate Events Ltd were each fined £10,000 after admitting the charge.
The case against Sportsworld involved 74 tickets amounting to £420,000 of sales, Scotland Yard said.
The firm was also ordered to pay £7,500 costs over the illegal sales, which are contrary to section 31 of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Act 2006.
Hospitality packages
The group's sister company Events International and Imperial Corporate Events admitted the same charge, at a hearing in September.
The court heard Sportsworld was an authorised ticket reseller in some countries, but the sale to Events International was in breach of its contract with London 2012 organisers Locog.
Detectives from Scotland Yard's Operation Podium investigation were alerted by firms that had bought corporate hospitality packages from Imperial Corporate Events, only to later realise they had bought tickets from an unauthorised outlet.
Sportsworld had sold a £1,600 face value ticket for the 100m final event to Events International for £4,200, investigators discovered.
Enthusiasm 'exploited'
Events International then sold it to Imperial Corporate Events for £4,800, which in turn packaged it with a night in a hotel and sold it to the customer for £10,000, Scotland Yard said.
Imperial Corporate Events sold more than £1m worth of tickets as part of Olympic packages to corporate customers that ranged from large corporations to small contractors.
Det Supt Nick Downing, leading Operation Podium, said: "These companies exploited the public enthusiasm for the Games and sought to make money by selling the tickets on at hugely inflated prices, despite knowing that they were breaking the law.
"As an authorised ticket reseller, Sportsworld Group Ltd also abused its position of trust when it decided to operate outside its agreement with Locog (London 2012 organisers)."