AC/DC conmen hunt after Birmingham tickets scam

Apr 26 2009 by Adam Aspinall, Sunday Mercury

AD/DC at the NEC

Apr 24 2009

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POLICE are hunting counterfeiters who left hundreds of fans out of pocket after selling them fake tickets for a sell-out AC/DC rock concert in Birmingham. Thunderstruck fans, some of them young children, were refused entry to the LG Arena at the NEC after box office officials realised the tickets were not real.

And the resulting crowd chaos led to many missing the beginning of the show, with frustrated queues outside the venue up to an hour after the 7.30pm start.

More than 12,000 fans spent thousands of pounds for a rare chance to see the Aussie rock legends perform live as part of their Black Ice world tour.

But they were left disappointed as they were turned away in their droves after being told that their £40-plus tickets were part of a counterfeit scam.

It was a nightmare, said fan Paul Clarke, 36, of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. People were turning up at the box office to collect their tickets, only to be told they had been conned.

I saw one family of four waving a receipt from an internet company. He had just been informed that although the cash had been taken from his account, the tickets did not exist.

Others who already had tickets in their hand were being turned away after they were scanned at the entrance and found to be fakes. That meant that fans with genuine tickets were stuck for ages in the queues that built up outside the foyer.

We were still waiting to get in as the support band finished their set.