Featured Image: Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
The husband of a “dishonest” ticket touting firm boss told a court he had no daily involvement in his wife’s business TQ Tickets Ltd, which sold £6.5m ($8.1m/€7.5m) worth of stock.
Mark Woods was a director in the company run by wife Maria Chenery-Woods but said he was not involved in its administration.
Leeds Crown Court heard that the firm used multiple identities, some of which were fake, to buy large numbers of tickets on primary sites including Ticketmaster.
The tickets were for artists such as Ed Sheeran and West End shows like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and were re-sold for a profit on secondary platforms such as Viagogo.
Woods is currently on trial with Chenery-Woods’ sister Lynda Chenery, with both denying three charges of fraudulent trading.
He became a director of TQ Tickets Ltd when it was set up because his spouse was bankrupt at the time and unable to become a director.
Speaking to the court this week, he said he “didn’t take a great deal of interest” in her business and was “extremely busy” with his own career in sales.
“I knew Maria was running a ticket and travel company, I knew she was involved in that market,” he told the court.
“I was perfectly satisfied that there was nothing untoward about what she was doing.”
Woods claims that he did not receive any money at all for his role as a director and that his arrest in 2017 came as a shock.
He states that he believed TQ Tickets Ltd was “a broker that provided tickets and travel for consumers wanting to go to events”.
Woods said his wife had used his bank cards for the business and that he thought they were being used to “pay invoices”.
Chenery-Woods has admitted to offences in the ongoing case, and was found to have mocked the victims of her firm.
Share this