The club said it found close to 68,000 fake accounts registered with LFC
Liverpool FC have acted over touting
Liverpool FC have acted over touting(Image: Andrew Powell, Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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More than £1.2 million worth of assets have been seized and hundreds of lifetime bans have been issued in a huge crackdown on Liverpool FC ticket touting. The club has worked alongside Merseyside Police to seize upwards of £1.2 million in assets relating to organised ticket touts, with several cases still ongoing under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the club has announced.
The operation has seen convictions in relation to ticket touting in the last 12 months, with another case currently going through the courts. The police operation focused on the laundering of criminal proceeds as a result of the ilicit ticket sales, as the club continued to crack down on ticket touting both online and outside the ground.
Liverpool FC said it analysed close to 700,000 ticket registrations last season, with almost 68,000 believed to be from fake accounts resulting in them being blocked or cancelled. A further 121,000 accounts remain under investigation.
The club has since issued 432 lifetime bans - 383 to All Red members, 41 to season ticket holders and eight to seasonal hospitality members - and 115 indefinite suspensions.
A lifetime ban is permanent, while indefinite suspensions have a minimum period of typically three years after which the account holder must apply for reinstatement.
The majority of bans or suspensions came from the unauthorised selling of season tickets, membership tickets or hospitality tickets, in breach of the club's terms and conditions.
Those banned or suspended can apply to the Independent Football Ombudsman.
The club also reported a 33% increase in the number of burner phones used for entry to the ground identified and entry either denied or the phones seized by Merseyside Police as a result. Burner phones are often cheaper models of phones and, in this case, used to keep tickets on before being handed to customers.
Targeted stops were also increased outside the ground on matchdays by Liverpool FC, resulting in the prevention of access to the ground for those with accounts that had suspicious activity. The club said it averaged 300 stops before home game, while also carrying out stop checks at away games.
Liverpool FC said a further 3,847 tickets were cancelled for suspicious purchase activity throughout the season.
Detective Chief Inspector Nick Suffield from Merseyside Police’s Economic Crime Team said: "This is a fantastic example of partnership working between ourselves and Liverpool Football Club for the good of the fans and the general public.
"We will always take action to protect genuine fans who fall victim to touts when all they are trying to do is simply purchase tickets to support their team.
"Our activities to target touts operating both online and on match days will continue and we work closely with supporters and clubs to keep identifying ticket touts and doing all we can to prevent them taking advantage of supporters and spoiling people's experience of football and the city.
"Our advice to football supporters is clear: don't buy from ticket touts. You will be taking a huge risk with a lot of money and may ultimately be refused entry to the match with no way of getting your money back."
The figures from the club come after an Amazon-esque business of touting tickets was uncovered and brought down, resulting in the convictions of four men in December last year.
Footage obtained during Merseyside Police's investigation, released to the ECHO, provided an illuminating insight into its lucrative dealings around the turn of the decade. Two clips show scores of desktop PCs, somewhere north of 30 in numbers, set up in order to harvest and sell on tickets.
The sophisticated operation, using a Dubai-registered business, was compared to a "supermarket chain for unauthoraised football ticket resales".
Read the full report: Inside the offices of 'Amazon' of ticket touting world on sixth form college campus
As well as ticket touting sanctions, 28 cases were highlighted as part of the club's Red Together initiative which looks at equality, diversity and inclusion. This saw either liftime bans or suspensions including three for racist and homophobic abuse, 13 for inappropriate touching or language, four for assault and one for tragedy chanting.
The club has warned anyone who is at Anfield with a ticket that has not been forwarded in line with the club's terms and conditions, or without a ticket at all, will be ejected.
Supporters were advised by the club not to buy from unofficial online channels or sellers. The club stated that upwards of nine out of ten tickets listed on these unofficial sites either do not exist or are touted tickets that have been sold multiple times.
Anyone who has information about ticket touts can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or via its website here: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously.