A TICKET tout who sold fake Liverpool tickets for six times the real price has been banned from all football games for four years.
Robbie Varle sold nine tickets for the club’s Champions League game against Barcelona for a total of £1,980 to some unsuspecting fans from Norway.
But when the supporters tried to get into Anfield, it was discovered the tickets, which should have cost £35, were fakes.
Liverpool Crown Court heard an investigation by the football intelligence unit led to Varle’s arrest.
David Evans, prosecuting, said the tickets were seized and sent away for forensic analysis.
Officers from the unit also seized and checked CCTV footage from when they were sold on March 6 last year.
Using fingerprints found on the tickets and the footage, Merseyside police were able to arrest Varle.
Varle, 22, of Northview, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, originally denied the offence, but yesterday, the day of his trial, he changed his plea and admitted fraud by false representation.
Judge Nigel Gilmour QC sentenced Varle to a four-year football banning order which prevents him from attending any game.
The ban also prevents him from possessing any tickets for any football matches at any time.
Judge Gilmour told Varle the order also prevented him from going within two miles of any football stadium up to five hours before kick-off and for two hours after the game finished.
The court heard that Manchester United fan Varle had previous convictions for ticket touting and had received a previous banning order in 2006, when the trainee plumber became one of the first England fans to be prevented from travelling to the World Cup in Germany.
He was stopped at an airport and magistrates in Chelmsford, Essex, used their powers under the Football Spectators Act to ban him from attending any match in England and Wales for three years.
The ban also stopped him from travelling to England games abroad.
Varle was also ordered to pay £1,980 in compensation to the Norwegian fans, as well as £600 in costs, which included the cost of flying one of the fans over to Liverpool to appear as a witness against him.
