Ed Sheeran ticket fraud case sees touts ordered to repay £3 million

A married couple convicted of running a large scale ticket touting fraud have been instructed to repay £3 million within three months or risk being sent to prison.

Maria Chenery Woods and her husband Mark Woods operated TQ Tickets Limited, which relied on more than 100 different identities to purchase tickets for artists including Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga before selling them on at heavily increased prices through resale platforms such as Viagogo.

Between 2015 and 2017, TQ Tickets generated £6.5 million in ticket sales. This total did not account for the hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of tickets that trading standards officers later uncovered during a raid on the company’s offices in Dickleburgh, Norfolk.

Following a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Leeds Crown Court, Chenery Woods was told she must repay £995,279 within weeks or face an additional four year prison sentence.

Mark Woods was also ordered to pay £2 million by April or face a prison term of seven years and six months.

Chenery Woods was previously handed a four year custodial sentence at Leeds Crown Court in May 2024.

Woods was given a two year suspended sentence and instructed to complete 250 hours of unpaid work. He was also placed under an electronically monitored overnight curfew for a period of four months.

The Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, which led the prosecution, said the pair made profits “to the tune of £9,815,351.52, which must be repaid in full”, according to BBC News.

Detective Chief Inspector Jon Hodgeon of YHROCU said the couple relied on “dishonest tactics to exploit people”.

Investigators said the pair sourced tickets from legitimate vendors including Ticketmaster, Eventim, SEE Tickets and ACS, before using false identities to resell them at far higher prices on secondary platforms such as Viagogo, Seatwave, Stubhub and Getmein.

Authorities stated that Chenery Woods was subject to a benefit figure of £7,842,799.35, which will remain outstanding until fully repaid, while the amount attributed to Woods was £1,972,552.17.

During the court proceedings, jurors heard evidence from Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp and promoter Stuart Galbraith, who outlined the “extensive measures” taken to prevent ticket resale at inflated prices during the singer’s 2018 UK stadium tour.

In January 2025, the Labour government announced plans to introduce a cap on resale prices, alongside a formal consultation into the ticketing industry and the controversial use of dynamic pricing. In November, after pressure from artists including Radiohead, Sam Fender and Dua Lipa, the government confirmed it would move forward with a ban.

Under the new regulations, it will be illegal to resell tickets for live music, sport, comedy and theatre events above their original face value. The changes are expected to reduce the average resale price of gig tickets by around £37 and save fans a combined £112 million annually, while also eliminating excessive fees charged by secondary sellers.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy spoke to NME following the announcement, saying: “We promised when we were elected that it would be time up for ticket touts. It’s a good day.”

Detailing how the changes would work in practice, she added: “People will obviously be able to re sell their tickets, but not for any more than the price they paid for it. They’ll have to sell it at face value.

“You do get lots of people who later find that they can’t go to a gig or sporting event, and we want to make sure that they can still sell their ticket. They won’t be able to add on any more money than they paid, but they will be able to get their money back.”