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Wimbledon Tennis Championships ticket tout handed six month prison sentence after refusing to 'grass' on his friend over illicit black market trade

AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

A Wimbledon tennis ticket tout who claimed he would “rather go to prison than be a grass” as he refused to name others involved in the illicit trade has been sentenced to six months behind bars.

Luke McKay was caught out by undercover agents when he set up a private Facebook group to trade black market tickets and struck a deal buy Centre Court seats for the 2019 tennis championships.

When hauled to the High Court over his activities, McKay refused to name a friend who was also suspected of illegally trading sports tickets.

McKay, from Kent, told a lawyer in the case he would “rather do ten years or die in prison than grass someone up who is so close to me”, and said to the judge directly: “I would rather go to prison than be a grass”.

He was handed a six-month prison sentence in December last year for contempt, but the jail term was put on hold to give him the chance to appeal.

Lord Justice Henderson, sitting with Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Lady Justice Simler, today dismissed McKay’s appeals.

In the original sentencing hearing, Mr Justice Chamberlain said ticket touts like McKay “must when found out cooperate for it is only through cooperation…that (Wimbledon) can stamp out, or seek to stamp out ticket touting”.

He said: “It should be borne in mind that ticket touting is a detrimental activity, not just to the claimants but to other members of the public who want to go and watch tennis but cannot obtain tickets legitimately because they are in the hands of ticket touts.

“They are a non-profit making organisation and they have to zealously guard the proceeds of ticket sales.”

The court heard McKay, using the pseudonym ‘Peter Raven’, was first identified as a tout in July 2017 and his Facebook page was put under surveillance by agents for the world-famous tennis championships.

In July 2019, an undercover agent who had “infiltrated the group” offered to sell McKay two tickets for the first Friday of the tournament, and they agreed to meet in a central London pub.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

A second agent went to the meeting to deliver the tickets and heard McKay making repeated references to his “boss”, who Wimbledon believes is a man called Greg Shepherd.

“The second agent gave the tickets to Mr McKay in exchange for a cash payment of £250”, said Lord Justice Henderson.

“On 5 July, two individuals were found to be in possession of the tickets within the grounds and it eventually transpired that they had been purchased through a website controlled by a Spanish company which has been associated with many unauthorised sales.

“In the light of this evidence, it appeared plain to Wimbledon that Mr McKay was in the business of buying tickets for the Championships, that he was well aware of the different ticket types available, and that he can only have been purchasing them with a view to their onward transfer or sale.”

McKay was found in contempt for refusing to disclose information during High Court proceedings, including after being told he would face jail if he did not cooperate.

The appeal court judges found that Mr Justice Chamberlain had taken a flawed approach to the contempt proceedings instead of being “careful and cautious”, and McKay had not been informed of his right to silence or warned against self-incrimination.

However the judges ruled that the errors had not fatally undermined the contempt ruling, as they dismissed McKay’s challenges.

Today’s ruling was delivered remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and discussions are now underway over how McKay begin his prison sentence.

The judges left open the possibility of giving him another fortnight to comply with the court orders instead of surrendering to prison.

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