Man jailed over role in online Ed Sheeran ticket scam

A man involved in the scam related to the sale of concert tickets to Ed Sheeran fans has been jailed for nine months at Ennis District Court.

Daragh O’Donoghue (23) was charged with stealing €460 from the four people as well as taking €250 from the wallet of Prasert Sihabany at a Thai Massage Parlour on Mill Road in Ennis.

Judge Patrick Durcan was told that Alison Riordan paid €60 for a ticket to the April 3Arena gig while Rosemary Sheridan and Kevin Bermingham each paid €100, and Margaret Keoghan paid €200 after replying to online ads for tickets. None of the monies have been recovered.

The court heard O’Donoghue played a part in the scam by allowing his bank account to be used for lodging the monies and was a beneficiary of some of the funds.

Dangerous amounts of drugs

Tara Godfrey, solicitor for O’Donoghue, told the court her client was not “the mastermind” of the scam. She said he was taking dangerous amounts of drugs at the time of the offences in March and April of this year and the money he earned from the crime was spent on drink and drugs.

The accused had been in custody on another matter since April 25th last, the court heard, and Judge Durcan backdated the sentence to commence on that date.

The judge said he did not know if those affected by O’Donoghue’s crimes “are employed or unemployed, if they won the Lotto or are struggling or if they have children but because of Mr O’Donoghue’s criminality, they lost money.”