'Concert Ponzi scheme': Fraudster will pay back $73,000 worth of tickets

A woman who tricked music lovers into purchasing $73,000 worth of concert tickets has been sentenced to home detention.

The woman, who has permanent name suppression appeared before Judge Geoff Rea in the Napier District Court on Monday afternoon on 21 counts of theft of a person in a special relationship.

The woman gained a reputation over several years for being able to acquire tickets for various concerts and events.

Between 2014 and 2016, she dealt with a small number of people who placed multiple orders with her and over time her reputation grew and so did the ticket demands.

People would often pay her directly or some would pay money into her bank account.

She was initially able to provide people with the tickets they requested, but in 2014 and 2015, she received money for tickets for upcoming concerts, but never supplied them.

She then made up fictitious concerts including a joint concert of Adele and Prince for which she was provided with the money, but not the tickets.

In total, she received $73,118 for tickets that were never supplied to her requesters.

She later told police that she had been let down by her ticket supplier who had taken $20,000 from her.

Instead of repaying the money to those she owed, she tried to purchase full price concert tickets for them instead.

She then started to use money paid by others to fulfil previously made ticket orders and so began a cycle of where people's money was not being used to buy their orders, but pay for other people's tickets.

She told police her debt continued to increase and she needed more money to pay those she owed.

Defence counsel Steve Winter told Judge Rea her actions were not for the purposes of fraud, but to obtain tickets for those close to her.

Winter said the woman had paid $40,000 back to those she owed and had a further $8000 available that she could pay back at $200 a week.

Rea described the woman's offending as a "concert Ponzi scheme".

"There's significant anger expressed for those who have written an impact statement," Judge Rea said.

"That is human nature, people don't like being ripped off and get angry when it happens."

She was sentenced to six months' and 14 days' home detention as well as full reparation of the money owed.

Judge Rea issued a permanent suppression order of the woman's name and said the woman was "well on her way to repaying everyone".