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Glastonbury ticket fraudster gets suspended sentence
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 7 September 2015
The woman convicted of fraud after amassing £23,000 from selling fake Glastonbury tickets recently avoided jail after being given a suspended sentence because of mitigating factors presented by her defence.
As previously reported, Christine Babb from East Grinstead duped 29 people into handing over money between August 2013 and July 2014 for non-existent Glastonbury tickets, claiming she worked in the music industry so had access to the event. Indeed she sold sufficient fake tickets to prompt the festival’s boss Michael Eavis to issue a statement noting that: “Nobody called Christine Babb is either employed by Glastonbury Festival or has any tickets to sell for the festival”.
Back in April, the magistrates court hearing the case was told that Babb had previous convictions for “very similar” scams, and it then transpired that some of the new offences were committed while she was still serving a suspended sentence for the previous crimes. Meanwhile, it emerged that when some of those who had bought the fake tickets complained, Babb had told them that she couldn’t afford to refund them their money because she was paying for cancer treatment, which was not true.
After being convicted, Babb’s defence lawyers argued that mitigating factors of borderline personality disorder, Crohn’s disease and bulimia should be taken into account before sentencing, though that didn’t stop the Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court referring the case to Isleworth Crown Court, because the higher court would be able to pass a heavier sentence.
But when the case reached the Crown Court late last month, the judge there accepted the mitigating circumstances and suspended Babb’s sixteen month sentence, while also instigating a one-year mental health order and ordering Babb to pay £22,422.50 in compensation.
According to the Daily Mail, the judge said: “A doctor’s report, which I have read, has found that you wanted to provide the tickets to people so you could feel better about yourself. You wanted to boost your own self-esteem. This can provide some explanation but no excuse for what you did and for the real loss you caused to so many people”.
