Justin Bieber ticket touts cost Scottish fans £1million

Ticket touts earned an estimated £1million from Justin Bieber fans in Scotland, it has been claimed.

Justin Bieber attends the 2015 American Music Award.(Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Around a third of tickets for the pop star’s Scottish dates fell into the hands of touts, meaning fans had to pay £1 million over the face value of the tickets.

Some tickets sold over the Internet for ten times their face value.

In an interview with the Daily Record, industry investigator Reg Walker, said: “We are seeing an age of vultures and parasites who are bleeding industry dry and putting nothing back in.

“I have intelligence that Justin Bieber’s gigs at the Hydro came under notable attack from American touts in New Jersey, who established a supply line in Glsagow that made them a fortune.

“We are drawing close to the reality that no ordinary fan will be able to secure a ticket for a high demand event for face value.

“This is the greatest rock and roll swindle in history.”

In Scotland the ‘secondary ticket trade’ costs music fans around £400 million a year.

Up to 70 per cent of ticket for some events are sold by ticket touts.

A spokesman from SSE Hydro - where Bieber played in Scotland - said: “We are moving more into paperless ticketing. This acts as a great deterrent as customers are not issued with a ticket in advance and will only gain entry to the concert on the night by having the payment card used,”