A
heartless Olympic scammer – who made €450,000 selling expensive
non-existent tickets from two bogus websites – has been jailed for
four years.
Amongst
the victims, from twenty different countries, were the parents of
Olympic competitors from France and Greece.
Christakis
Ioannou, 44, (pictured) of Crantock Road, Catford was arrested at
Gatwick Airport with €17,500 stuffed inside his shoes as he stepped
off a flight from his Portugal hideaway.
The
Metropolitan Police's Operation Podium Team discovered Ioannou wired
his illicit profits to Portugeuse bank accounts, where he made cash
withdrawls.
He
pleaded guilty at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court to participating
in a fraudulent business and possessing and concealing criminal
property.
Ioannou
set up two fake websites nearly a year before the the opening
ceremony, which were designed to look like official sites, offering
for sale unlimited numbers of tickets for all Olympic events.
Over
400 people, from around the world, tried to buy tickets for the Games
from www.2012-londonsummergames.com and
www.2012-londonsummergames.org.
In
five weeks the sites took over €450,000 in sales for non existent
tickets to the Olympics.
Detectives
from Podium tracked the websites back to Ioannou, who was based in
Portugal, and he was arrested when returning to the UK.
Evidence
was taken from victims in over twenty countries around the world
including the USA; Italy; Netherlands and Denmark.
Detective
Superintendent Nick Downing said: “Ioannou was the first fraudster
of this type we identified and the biggest.
“This
case clearly shows that online crime of this nature is not a
victimless crime.
“Over
four hundred people missed out on a chance to be part of the London
2012 Olympic Games and instead were simply ripped off.
“Ioannou
set up simple yet genuine looking sites, and made thousands within
only five weeks.
“Podium
were so concerned about people falling foul of his scam we issued a
number of public warnings naming the sites to try prevent additional
people from getting conned.
“Once
someone had bought their tickets, at vastly over inflated prices,
they never heard from the website of his company again.
”These
sites were picked up as part of our proactive monitoring of the
internet and referrals from LOCOG to spot and then prevent fraudsters
like Ioannou from cashing in on the popularity of the Games.
“Three
hundred and forty websites were identified in this way.
“Never
buy your tickets from anywhere but the official event organisers, or
those people authorised to sell on their behalf.”
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