A gambling addict who conned music fans out of thousands of pounds by selling non-existent concert tickets has been jailed.

Steven Coe, 28, of Rumsey Close, Hampton, used Facebook to contact six people who he persuaded to hand over a total of £6,576 for tickets they never received.

Kingston Crown Court heard Coe conned people into depositing money into his bank account for the tickets between August 2012 and April this year and continued to commit fraud while on police bail.

When the tickets failed to arrive, the victims tried to contact Coe but he did not answer texts or phone calls and they said his Facebook profile had been deleted.

On December 18 Coe handed himself in to Twickenham police station after one victim sent him a letter before action and on February 26 he was arrested and released on bail.

Prosecuting Stephen Apted said despite his arrest Coe went on to commit a further two offences, one of which saw him con Lucy Murphy out of £2,450 for tickets to Rihanna, Beyonce and Michael Buble.

Coe had his card declined five times after he racked up a bill of £154 at La Pampa Grill in Northcote Road, Clapham, while on bail on March 15. He agreed to return at a later date but never did.

 

Mr Apted also told the court that on November 16, Coe had £619 worth of treatment at Capital Dental Centre in Hampton and said he was going to get some money out to pay but never returned.

Judge Nicholas Price QC sentenced Coe to two years in jail, ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £120 and made an order for compensation to be paid to the victims on Tuesday, July 23.

He said: “You have an appalling record of 20 convictions for 33 offences. You have become what I can only describe as a professional conman.

“People lost hard earned money because they were persuaded by your talk.

“Frankly the cheek of this defies belief.”

Gambling addiction led to deception

Defence solicitor Alex Balancy told the court Coe attended gambling anonymous for his five-year addiction.

He said Coe committed fraud in a desperate bid to escape a loan shark to whom he owed £13,000 and who was threatening him, his pregnant girlfriend and his mother.

Mr Balancy said: “He (Coe) said he was genuinely scared. He said that he used his name, his address, his bank details and he gave his real phone number because he knew it was going to come back to him.

“He said that although he knew inevitably he was going to be arrested for this his priority was to pay off this loan shark.

“He said he is extremely remorseful. He had believed that he had the intention somehow to repay these people because he knew some of them and it had brought shame on his family.

“He said that he found himself in this situation following his gambling addiction and couldn’t find a way out.”

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