Olympics Fraudster Jailed

12 October 2012, 18:48 | Updated: 12 October 2012, 18:50

An Olympics fraudster who sold fake tickets to medal winners' parents has been jailed for four years.

Christakis Ioannou was carrying £14,100 in his shoes when Scotland Yard detectives arrested him at Gatwick Airport.

The sum was just a fraction of what he made in a near £411,889 fraud that affected parents of athletes from Greece and France, including at least one medal winner.

He set up two fake websites nearly a year ahead of the Games opening ceremony.

Designed to look official, the sites offered for sale unlimited numbers of tickets for all Olympic events.

Over 400 people, from around the world, tried to buy tickets for the Games from www.2012-londonsummergames.com and www.2012-londonsummergames.org.

In five weeks alone the sites took over £363,000 in sales for non-existent tickets to the Olympics to people from 35 countries around the world.

Ioannou was traced through the websites to Portugal by detectives from Scotland Yard's specialist Operation Podium team.