Electric Picnic tickets scam

A man who allowed his bank account to be used in a Electric Picnic tickets scam is to be sentenced in January.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that one of the women who was duped later wrote a song about it and posted it on YouTube. The video became a hit and led to her receiving free tickets to the Electric Picnic event.

Jonathan McLoughlin, aged 34, of Sheephill Park, Blanchardstown, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to aiding and abetting an unknown person in the commission of an offence of deception in August 2013.

He has two previous convictions from the Children’s Court for criminal damage and possession of a knife.

Detective Garda Patrick Traynor agreed with Lorcan Staines BL, defending, that although McLoughlin told gardaí he would “take the rap”, officers were not “totally convinced” by his admissions and were satisfied someone else was involved.

Mr Staines said that McLoughlin now instructed that he had been getting a small amount of cannabis “on tick” at the time and he was asked for his bank card and account details. The detective accepted that this explanation was “reasonably possible”.

Det Gda Traynor said the scam involved the advertisement of tickets for Electric Picnic on the Donedeal website and an unknown man contacting people who had posted ads looking for tickets. Another man was conned into transferring cash to McLoughlin’s account for a car engine after he placed an ad on the same website looking for one.

A total of €2,630 was lodged to McLoughlin’s account, a large proportion of which was later withdrawn by his card in various ATMs.

Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned the case to January to allow for preparation of a Probation Service report.