Liverpool FC ticket touting plot 'happened under the nose' of club

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The claims were made during the sentencing of tout Joseph Johnson, who generated profits amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds while colluding with club staff, at Liverpool Crown Court.However, it was the defence team of one of his co-defendants, Louis James, who alleged that the practice happened "under the nose" of the club, which itself was accused in court of "wanting to control the secondary ticket market", as it was claimed "senior players in the first team squad were equally adept at this market as anyone else."The club today said it had a "zero tolerance approach to the misuse of our tickets", adding "this approach applies internally as well as externally, as this case highlights."A trial previously heard that Joseph Johnson and his co-conspirators Louis James, James Johnson, Liam Rice and Lee Smith were "involved in a sophisticated ticket fraud", whose "central purpose was to obtain as many Liverpool football tickets as possible". He was subsequently said to have exchanged messages with Joseph Johnson, described as being "central to the business", before he exited his vehicle, approached the window and was handed the envelopes.This led to the matter being reported to Merseyside Police and James' dismissal from the club.

That was the criminality, not that there was a genuine financial loss to Liverpool Football Club."The court meanwhile heard of one message sent by Smith to Joseph Johnson in October 2018, in which he said: "Do you know how much money is on the log from the beginning of the season until now? What he did was in gross breach of trust of the fact that employees were expected to comply with the rules of the football club."He accepts that he made money from that scheme.

His barrister Holly Menary added: "He has prepared himself for the fact that he might not be coming home today."He is a father of five. You abused that position as an employee of Liverpool Football Club to access and distribute tickets."James Johnson, you also were a Liverpool Football Club employee.