Ticket Touts [Or Theft of Tickets and Related Offences]
| Author | Kiron Reid,John MacIeod |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201839906300633 |
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Ticket
Touts
[or
theft
of
tickets
and
related
offences}
Kiron Reid and John Macleod*
University
of
Liverpool
Part I: Introduction
The
problem
Suppose aservice provider (SP) is accustomed to issue tickets in connec-
tion
with
his supply of services to consumers (C), eg a carrier, such as a
railway or bus;
an
entertainer, such as a football or tennis club; a
payment
card issuer, such as a
bank
issuing a charge, credit or debit card.
The ticket is to be presented by C at
the
point of service to
him
to identify
that
he
is entitled to
the
service. The SP intends
that
some such services
are to be supplied on a repeat basis, eg a
payment
card, a season ticket;
but
others
are
to be used only once. In
either
event, SP intends
that
only
the
person to
whom
the
ticket is issued (C) is to enjoy the service;
but
for
reasons of practicality
and
economy often no steps are
taken
to identify
C
other
than
as
presenter
of
the
ticket. I
Suppose further,
that
Cpurports to transfer his ticket to another:
he
may
give it to a friend (X); or sell/abandon it to
another
consumer (X);
or give/sell/abandon it to a ticket
tout
(IT),
who
in
tum
sells
the
ticket
to X.This
paper
is concerned with
the
steps
that
are
commonly
taken
by
SPs to limit
the
use of
the
ticket to C; to
prevent
its sale by IT;
and
to
prevent
its use by X.
The
case
In Rv
Marshall,
2
IT
was video recorded obtaining
underground
tickets
or
travelcards from members of
the
public (C) passing through barriers
and
resold
them
to
other
potential London Underground customers (X). He
was charged
with
theft. For
the
purposes of a pre-trial hearing
on
legal
issues,
the
following facts were agreed:
the
tickets were valid
(in
date)
and
capable of being used by
the
new
buyers (X), so depriving London
Underground of revenue. On
the
basis of these agreed facts,
the
trial
judge ruled as follows:
*The authors are grateful to Professor Sir John Smith for entering into debate on
the subject of this article and for his comments on an earlier draft. Errors and
omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.
I Although in the case of a season ticket or London Underground 'Travelcard' the
ticket may have to be used in conjunction with a photobadge of C.
2 [19981 2 Cr App R 282, CA. The transcript of the case on Lexis will be referred to
here. For a criminal law analysis of the case see J C Smith, 'Stealing Tickets'
[1998] Crim LR723.
593
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