Fraudster fined for selling fake Oasis tickets

A fraudster who sold fake Oasis tickets to pay off her debts has been fined £40 and given a community order.

Rosie Slater scammed 11 people out of a total of £4,000 after offering tickets and VIP box access for the band's shows at Wembley via WhatsApp in May.

The 33-year-old, from Betley in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud by false representation at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre in December.

She was fined £40 on Monday, ordered to pay compensation of £776.98 to five of her victims and handed a 12-month community order at the same court.

Kyle Padley, prosecuting, told the court one man who bought 15 tickets from her set up two WhatsApp groups and invited friends who he thought might want to buy some.

Slater offered a price of £130 per ticket and some people sent her the money directly, booking non-refundable hotel rooms for the concert dates, the court heard.

Padley said it later came out that she was lying and the 33-year-old told police she had "started with good intent then it escalated out of her control".

Simon Leech, defending, said Slater did not spend the money "extravagantly" and used it to pay off household debts, including council tax.

Some of her victims have already been able to get refunds, the court was told.

Det Con David Stubbs told LBC that Slater had connections with some rich and famous people and, due to this, she was able to convince her victims she had "credible access" to the tickets.

"No evidence has been found of any coercion," he added. "She has acted, we believe, purely out of greed, exploiting her connections for personal gain.

"This has left the victims obviously very upset. It's caused a lot of anger and hurt, really, particularly as she used some of the victims to attract more victims."