A trial date has been set for the Brighton teenager charged with defrauding music fans out of thousands of pounds by promising cut-price pop festival tickets.
Ben Hyland-Ward, 19, of Westfield Avenue South, Saltdean, has been ordered to face a jury from Monday 9 January next year, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Monday 12 December.
The date was set at Brighton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday 12 May) by Judge Shani Barnes, the honorary recorder of Brighton and Hove.
Hyland-Ward, a former Varndean School pupil, is on bail, having been sent for trial by Brighton magistrates on his 19th birthday in March.
He is facing nine charges of fraud by false representation. Eight of the charges accuse him of defrauding named victims out of a total of £3,825.
A ninth wider charge dishonestly making “a false representation, namely that you were going to acquire tickets for that person for Bestival at a reduced rate”.
Hyland-Ward was arrested by Sussex Police after claims that he promised cheap tickets for the Isle of Wight Bestival music festival in September last year.
