The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Ltd v Luke McKay
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Chamberlain |
| Judgment Date | 30 October 2019 |
| Neutral Citation | [2019] EWHC 2973 (QB) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: QB2019002461 |
| Date | 30 October 2019 |
[2019] EWHC 2973 (QB)
Mr Justice Chamberlain
Case No: QB2019002461
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Mr Edward Rowntree (instructed by Kerman & Co.) for the Claimants
The Defendant did not appear
Hearing dates: 30 October 2019
Approved Judgment
This is an application by the First and Second Claimants, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Ltd and the All England Lawn Tennis Ground plc, to commit the Defendant, Luke McKay, to prison for contempt of court. The contempt alleged is breach of an interim injunction granted by Nicklin J on 9 July 2019.
The following facts are stated in the affidavits of Emma Elizabeth Shaw and Lewis David Glasson, both associate solicitors in the firm of Kerman & Co. I stress that these facts are as alleged by the Claimants. At this stage, I make no findings. The First Claimant runs and issues tickets for the well-known tennis championships at Wimbledon (‘the Championships’), which take place during a two-week period in June and/or July of each year. In 2019, the Championships took place between 1 and 14 July. The Second Claimant owns the premises where the Championships take place (‘the Premises’). All of the tickets except those issued to debenture holders are Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets (‘NTWTs’). They are issued on condition that they may not be resold or transferred. If they are, they become void. This means that selling a NTWT is a breach of contract.
The Claimants became aware that the Defendant had for some time been operating a private Facebook group using the name Peter Raven. On 8 May 2019, he changed the name of the group to ‘Wimbledon 2019 tennis ticket enquiries debentures’, on which there were offers to buy and sell tickets to the Championships. On 3 July 2019, an agent acting on behalf of the Claimants sent a private message to the Defendant via Facebook offering for sale two NTWTs for Centre Court on 5 July 2019. An exchange took place in which the Defendant made clear he knew the tickets were not for debenture seats and asked for a price reduction. The Defendant in due course purchased them from agents of the Claimants for £250 in cash. Prior to completing the sale, the Defendant referred to ‘his boss’ and used his mobile telephone to call someone whose caller identification appeared as ‘Greg Shep’. That person spoke to the Claimants' agent, who thinks he introduced himself as ‘Greg Shepherd’. On 5 July 2019, two other individuals were found at the Premises in possession of these tickets. They had been purchased from a website: www.onlineticketexpress.com.
On 9 July 2019, the Claimants issued proceedings against the Defendant, whom they described as a ‘ticket tout’. On the same day they applied for an interim injunction. Nicklin J granted the injunction, which was endorsed with a penal notice (‘the Order’). It provided materially as follows:
‘2. The defendant must not carry out, cause or permit to be done any of the following acts, namely:
(a) offering or exposing for sale or selling or in any way whatsoever trading in any tickets (except for Debenture Holders' tickets) for the 2019 Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships (hereinafter referred to as “Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets”); or providing or arranging for the provision by another of Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets; or giving away Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets whether as part of the package of products and/or services or otherwise;
(b) offering to buy or buying or in any way whatsoever trading in Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets; and
(c) destroying, altering, moving or otherwise dealing with the documents referred to in paragraph 3 below, save in compliance with that paragraph.
3. The Defendant must:
(a) forthwith upon service of this Order upon the Defendant, each deliver up to the Claimants' solicitors (c/o Kerman & Co, 220 Strand, London WC2R 1DJ) all and any Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets in the Defendant's possession, custody, power or control which have come into their possession without the written consent of the Claimants. For the avoidance of doubt, such tickets as shall be delivered by the defendant to the Claimants' solicitors shall be held by the solicitors at the direction of the Court;
(b) insofar as the Defendant has the necessary third party contact details (whether such be addresses, email addresses, mobile or landline telephone numbers or otherwise howsoever), within 24 hours of the service of this Order upon the Defendant or the communication of its terms to him (whichever is the sooner) each write to or communicate with every third party to whom the Defendant has purported to sell or transfer Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets and/or associated hospitality, notifying such persons that the Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets that they have been sold have at all material times been non-transferable and accordingly are void in their hands;
(c) By no later than 4.30 pm on Thursday 11 July (unless the Court otherwise orders) Defendant shall make and serve on the Claimants' solicitors by email to lewis.glasson@kermanco.com a signed witness statement and exhibits thereto:
(i) Setting out so far as practicable full details of every transaction or contract pursuant to which the defendant whether by himself, or through a third party company, individual or otherwise, as purported to buy or otherwise obtain non-transferable Wimbledon tickets and/or associated hospitality, including but not limited to:
(1) full details of the identity of the party with whom the transaction or contract was made including names and addresses and other contact details as well as the full details of others working in concert with the defendant in any such transaction;
(2) full details of when and where any transaction in Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets took place, between whom on each side, what form it took, whether it was made orally or in writing, what tickets were bought under it, and all other terms of the transaction, exhibiting originals or copies of all invoices and delivery notes, payments, ledgers and other documents recording or relating to the purchase of any and all Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets including bank statements for all accounts held by the Defendant and any business (whether a registered business or otherwise) to which they are associated (formally or otherwise) showing details of payments made by or on behalf of the Defendant or others for whom the defendant has procured the purchase of Non-Transferable Wimbledon Tickets and the names of those to whom the payment was made;
(3) confirming the Defendant's compliance with paragraph 3(a) and 3(b) of this Order.
(d) If the provision of any of this information is likely to incriminate the Defendant, he may be entitled to refuse to provide it, but must set this out fully in the witness statement. The Defendant is recommended to take legal advice before refusing to provide any information referred to in this order. Wrongful refusal to provide the information is contempt of court and may render the Defendant liable to be imprisoned, fined or have his assets seized.’
The Order was sealed on the same day, Tuesday 9 July 2019. It provided for a return date at 3pm on Thursday 11 July. It did not prove possible to serve the Order personally on the Defendant in advance of this hearing, but a copy of it was posted through the letter box of his property in Beckenham, Kent.
In the event, the Defendant did not attend on the return date and Nicklin J continued the Order with costs of £15,000 awarded in the Claimants' favour.
The Order was personally served on the Defendant at his home address on 16 July 2019.
On 17 July 2019, the Claimants' solicitors, Kermans, wrote to the Defendant to notify him that, because he had not provided the witness statement required, he was in breach of the Order, but offering to extend time for compliance to 5pm on Friday 19 July 2019. The witness statement was not provided by that date; and the Defendant did not contact the Claimants' solicitors at that time.
On 26 July 2019, the Defendant called Kermans from the Personal Support Unit at the Royal Courts of Justice as he was under the impression that there was a hearing listed on that day. He said that his mother had died, he was in financial difficulty and did not want to be in contempt. The phone was passed to a member of the PSU, who said that the Defendant wanted to settle his costs liability under the Order by way of payment in instalments. The solicitor from Kermans told the PSU member of staff that he should put any offer in writing and Kermans would then take instructions on it. On the same day, the Defendant hand delivered a letter indicating that his financial circumstances were bad since his mother had died, he was facing eviction and was currently awaiting benefits. He said that he would contact Kermans within 28 days with an instalment plan. He also said: ‘I do not intend to sell tickets anymore as this is affecting my mental health’.
On 5 August 2019, Kermans wrote to the Defendant pointing out that he was still in breach of the Order and indicating that the Claimants were prepared to give him until 9 August 2019 to comply with the provision requiring service of a witness statement, failing which the Claimants would apply to commit him to prison. Kermans drew the Defendant's attention to the possible availability of criminal legal aid should such an application be made. On 6 August 2019, the Defendant called Kermans and spoke to two solicitors there. It is not necessary to record the whole contents of the conversation, but it included words to the effect that the Defendant would rather...
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