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Mirror pair help convict ‘Britain’s biggest’ ticket fraudster

By Andrew Pugh

Daily Mirror investigative journalists Andrew Penman and Nick Sommerlad have helped convict a £15m fraudster involved in the ‘crown jewel’of ticket scams.

The pair first exposed Terry Shepherd in 2007 with a story on how he scammed a family out of £1,100 for Champions League tickets in Paris.

At the time Shepherd ran the Online Ticket Shop, but Penman and Sommerlad revealed how he had previously run Sports Mondial, a company banned by Uefa from selling Euro 2004 tickets and which later went bust owing £2.3m.

Following a series of further exposes – including his involvement in an Olympic Games ticket scam – Shepherd was allegedly heard bragging that he would get Sommerlad ‘taken care of”, and claimed in court that the newspaper had a ‘vendetta’against him.

Yesterday he was warned he faces a significant jail term after he was convicted of fraudulent trading, money laundering and acting as a company director when disqualified.

Southwark Crown Court heard how over a ten-year period a string of Shepherd’s firms and websites went bust, owing almost £15m.

According to a report in today’s paper: ‘The last and biggest was Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality Ltd which ran beijingticketing.com and collapsed just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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‘Around 2,500 fans, including the parents of gold medalist swimmer Rebecca Adlington, didn’t get tickets for the Games while another 2,600 victims were scammed for music festival tickets.”

The Metropolitan Police has thanked the newspaper for its work on the case.

Detective Sergeant Tor Mansson said: ‘I would like to thank the Daily Mirror who at the onset of this investigation provided vital information to the police allowing the investigation to develop and ultimately reach this stage.”

Shepherd and his business partner Alan Scott were remanded in custody.

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