Police Rip Up Paperticket

U.K. police have shut down another ticket tout, prompting the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents (ASTA) to repeat its call for legislation.

The police’s computer crime unit closed the www.paperticket.co.uk site Oct. 16, following a tip from ASTA.

“We have been concerned for weeks that Paperticket was selling tickets for forthcoming concerts by the likes of Barry Manilow, Kings of Leon and The Killers at unrealistically low prices and we made our concerns known to the authorities,” said ASTA chairman Graham Burns.

The latest note on the Paperticket site says, “On 16 October, the Metropolitan Police Service’s Computer Crime Unit requested the dehosting of the www.paperticket.co.uk Web site under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

“People who have bought tickets from this site are encouraged to call Consumer Direct for advice on 08454 04 05 06.”

Having resisted demands from concert promoters to have the secondary market outlawed, the government is being urged to differentiate between a legitimate tout and a rogue one.

ASTA, which represents more than 50 ticket brokers and is introducing a scheme to ensure all its members are bonded, is lobbying the government to back its plan for a kitemark scheme that will help the public identify what it refers to as “accredited suppliers.”