Belgium’s Tomorrowland has not only become the Mecca for all things dance music-related, but the pilgrimage to the legendary event has turned into a bucket list staple akin to experiencing the US’ famous Burning Man festival.
With such a mythos surrounding the event, it’s hardly surprising that tickets are hard to come by. The event experiences annual sell-outs, and as InTheMix notes, this year 180,000 tickets took less than an hour to completely fly out the door.
The sell-outs leave thousands of desperate fans in their wake and 23-year-old Charmaine Bowers was more than happy to exploit punters’ desperation for her own gain. The Labour council candidate was recently sentenced to two years’ jail time for defrauding people with fake Tomorrowland tickets.
As the Lincolnshire Echo reports, Bowers pulled in over $200,000 by duping “at least 311” people looking to attend the popular ID&T event between December 2012 and July 2013, including veteran soldiers just back from Afghanistan on leave.
Bowers worked with her mother to create convincing fake tickets on her laptop, which she would print out, complete with barcoded confirmation slips, using her employer’s printer. She then created an elaborate backstory to dupe unfortunate would-be punters into buying the fake tickets.
“Charmaine Bowers has been dishonest and devious to her victims and also to police throughout the investigation,” said Detective Constable Glenn Harrop. “What was particularly sickening was her reference to ‘Happy Money’ on her bank accounts when transferring her ill-gotten gains to her mother’s bank account.”
“There was nothing happy about the loss to the victims who were mostly young 18 to 30 year olds with little disposable income,” Det Cons Harrop added. “Other victims have included veteran servicemen just back from Afghanistan on leave.”
Bowers, who was running as a Labour candidate for a Gainsborough North seat in the West Lindsey District Council elections this week, has received a sentence of two years and three months, after she pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud. She has been suspended from the Labour party.
According to prosecutor Andrew Maitland, Bowers falsely claimed on a Facebook page that she modelled for Nuts glamour magazine and had access to promotional tickets. Mr Maitland also said that Bowers claimed to be earning £8,000 per month modelling for Dior and MAC cosmetics.
Mr Maitland referred to the case as a “carefully constructed” and “sophisticated” fraud operation, in which the aspiring politician and former Face of Plymouth contestant “presented herself in this glamorous life”, even presenting the ruse to police.
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According the prosecutor, after disquiet among Bowers’ customers grew, she went to Tavistock police where the “tearful” Charmaine claimed people were falsely accusing them of fraud. Bowers then gave a “totally fictitious account” in which she was approached by a friend, Emily Stevens, to help sell the tickets.
Emily Stevens, it was soon discovered, was simply an alter ego created by Ms Bowers, complete with a fraudulent Facebook profile. Bowers’ mother, Tina, was complicit in the fraud, telling police that her daughter’s modelling career was legitimate and that she had been voted “third best bum in England”.
Tina Bowers was sentenced to for two years and three months jail time, taking into account her early guilty plea. The judge said Tina “facilitated” the fraud and sentenced her to 29 weeks, suspended for two years. She was ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work.
This year, Tomorrowland organisers warned fans to stay away from black market tickets, saying even legitimate tickets bought through secondary sites would be cancelled. The Tomorrowland website explicitly forbids reselling tickets, insisting resold tickets will be “blacklisted, rendering them invalid”.
