Leeds Festival introduces the multi agency tout response vehicle

For the first time a multi agency tout response vehicle was deployed at this year's Leeds Festival which happened at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th August.

Officers from a number of different agencies joined forces with Leeds Festival organisers this year in order to form the new 'Multi agency tout response vehicle' (minibus) which toured the roads around the festival site at Bramham Park and it's been revealed that its implementation resulted in a significant drop in ticket touts along the roads outside the festival.

The operation was financed by the organiser who provided the minibus which was utilised by officers and evidence gathering staff from West Yorkshire Police, Leeds City Council Highways Enforcement, West Yorkshire Trading Standards, the Department for Work and Pensions and Leeds Festival ticketing staff.

This is the first time that such an operation has taken place to prevent ticket touting at music festivals. The minibus was able to confront touts and then issue "cease trading orders" to seven touts, they also made two arrests, issued a court order, a traffic fixed penalty notice and seized some counterfeit items.

Leeds Festival and West Yorkshire Police have been unable to take positive action in previous years against touts operating outside the festival as the majority do not commit a criminal offence.

Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn is reported on Record Of Day, (here), as saying "I was keen to try and take action against touts offsite because they have disrupted our traffic plan and exploited our festival goers for years. I was delighted that agencies were able to join together in such a united and organised manner and that we could finally disrupt the touts' activities. We hope very much to repeat the response vehicle in 2011 and are very grateful to all the agencies involved for their co-operation."

Inspector Griffiths of West Yorkshire Police added, "The close working relationship developed over a number of years with Festival Republic has allowed West Yorkshire Police and its partner agencies to put together a radical ground-breaking approach to dealing with potential criminality around the festival site. With the huge influx of traffic in the run-up to the festival, touts operating from the roadside were causing real and potential traffic hazards. The ability to respond quickly and flexibly to reports of touts ensured we were able to maintain a safe environment for other road users. Officers from Leeds City Council, Trading Standards and the Department for Work and Pensions were then able to interrogate their systems and identify potential offenders. I think the proof of the pudding was in the eating – the number of touts operating on the second and third days of our operation tailed off to nothing, thus keeping our roads clear of potential hazards."

It's a shame that Festival Republic don't have too much problem with online touts as they're in league with a website that is used primarily for the touting of tickets online, and in previous years have directed people to the site directly from the festival's own website which sells secondary tickets at inflated prices.

There are no tickets for 2011 on sale at present from any authorised websites. Do not purchase tickets from unofficial or secondary ticket outlets or auction sites as they often are unable to supply the tickets, and might not even give you a refund - there's lots of dodgy operators out there!

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