Wristband Gang May Have Made £1M

A gang selling fake wristbands for U.K. music festivals may have netted more than £1 million.

Police reckon at least 5,000 were sold at the 2007 Isle Of Wight Festival, which appears to have been the worst-hit event.

The scam was uncovered during the course of that event, and the counterfeit wristbands are being produced as evidence.

“They were selling them at the ferry port and at the entrance, but the wristbands were so pathetic that I doubt if as many as five people got on with them,” IOW organiser John Giddings told Pollstar.

He declined to discuss the matter on the grounds that the case is ongoing and he may be called as a witness, although he did confirm that one of those on trial, 30-year-old local artist Sherrell Davenport, is the creator of the statue of Jimi Hendrix that was controversially erected near the festival site in 2006.

Local residents were divided over the issue, with some seeing it as a cultural landmark and others seeing it as “an inappropriate” monument to a drug-taking rock star.

Davenport and 40-year-old Jacob Cloud, who also lives on the Isle of Wight, pleaded not guilty Jan. 7 to charges of conspiracy to defraud.

At an earlier hearing, two others, alleged to be members of the same gang, pleaded guilty to similar charges.