Gambler Tyson Brown faces themusic court over concert ticket con and harassment offences
Music lovers of Tame Impala, Chemical Brothers and Khalid were netted up in a gambling addict’s online scam that saw them hand over their cash but get nothing in return.
Outer East
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A gambling addict who conned social media users into handing him hundreds of dollars for headline concert tickets he never ultimately sent them has faced the music in court.
Tyson Brown, 25, pleaded guilty at the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on March 31 to obtaining money by deception as well as to harassing a man following a car accident in January.
Prosecutor Sergeant Ben Hodson told the court Brown scoped out online platforms such as Facebook and Gumtree between August and February searching for people to con.
He approached his victims after they posted online that they were looking for tickets to shows such as Khalid, Chemical Brothers, Tame Impala and Ziggy Alberts.
Brown responded and offered to sell them tickets, but upon receiving the cash he’d always make up excuses as to why he couldn’t send the tickers before eventually ceasing contact with his victims altogether.
Brown’s concert ticket con netted him more than $800, according to court documents.
His defence lawyer told the court his criminal behaviour was driven by his gambling addiction.
Sergeant Hodson also told the court Brown harassed a man and his mother following a car accident in Parkville in January.
Brown first sent a text to the man asking for $1000 to cover the total cost of fixing his car, which the man did.
But when Brown sent a further message the following day asking for more money and got no reply, Brown called the man dozens of times and even tracked down his mother on Facebook and sent her numerous messages and calls, the court heard.
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Magistrate Mary-Anne MacCallum placed Brown on two 18-month community corrections orders and ordered he complete treatment for his gambling addiction.
Brown was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community work and must pay back his victims’ money for the bogus concert tickets.
“I’m ordering by consent that Tyson is going to pay all that money back to the people he deceived,” Ms MacCallum said.
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