A Burlington couple who defrauded more than a hundred people out of $265,000 by selling them Taylor Swift concert tickets that did not exist faced some of their victims in a Milton courtroom Tuesday.
Assistant Crown attorney Michael Rzeszutek told Ontario Court Justice Peter Maund that the joint position on sentencing from the Crown and defence for Denise Tisor is a two-year less a day Conditional Sentence Order (CSO) and a six-month CSO for David Blake.
A CSO is a sentence that is served in the community, a portion usually served under strict house arrest followed by a period of house arrest with a curfew. If the judge agrees to the joint request, the couple will not spend any time in jail.
In July, Tisor pled guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 and Blake pled guilty to one count of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. The couple admitted they defrauded 107 victims who believed they were buying concert tickets from Blake to one of six Toronto Eras Tour concerts in November 2024.
Nearly two dozen victim impact statements were read out from parents who shared their feelings of anger, shock and distress after learning they’d purchased fake tickets from Tisor. Some told court Tisor was a mother in their community they trusted, who had sold them legitimate concert tickets before and whom they referred to others.
Many of the victims shared similar stories about how their children, who were excited after being given the Taylor Swift tickets as gifts, were left heartbroken when their parents had to tell them the tickets did not exist.
“You had no problem at all breaking the hearts of hundreds of children and leaving them to try to make sense of a senseless act of greed,” said Alaina Attard, who paid $1,050 for two tickets.
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Kristina Picton, who spent $1,700 on two tickets, told court her daughter had been sick for six years having undergone surgeries and biopsies and said the concert would be a “big treat and day out of hospital.”
Picton said as she and her daughter were at the GO station on their way to the concert in Toronto, they got a message from Tisor saying the man who was supposed to be providing her with the concert tickets was unreachable.
“I couldn’t believe I was taken for a ride and people could be capable of such malicious behavior,” said Picton. “I hope she’s held accountable for her disgusting behavior. I would like to be paid in full the $1,700 to my account and get the restitution I deserve.”
Tammy Allin told court that she spent $2,100 and thought Tisor was trustworthy given she had taught three of Tisor’s four children in school. She called the scam “a breach of trust.” Allin wept as she recalled how she had to tell her daughter that an adult she trusted had been dishonest.
“I carry deep guilt because I recommended the accused to others based on years of trust.”
Tisor, who was also known as Denise Blackhawk, admitted that between Aug. 8, 2023, and Nov. 12, 2024, 107 Taylor Swift ticket purchasers from across Southern Ontario purchased $265,330 worth of tickets from Tisor.
The facts state that purchasers negotiated prices for seats located in Rogers Centre for one of Swift’s six Toronto shows in November 2024, before sending Tisor payment via electronic money transfer. Tisor told all of the purchasers they would receive their tickets via email between 48-72 hours before the date of the concert.
Nov. 14, 2024, was the first Taylor Swift concert. In the hours leading up to the concert, none of the victims had received their tickets.
They began to contact Tisor looking for answers. She told the victims that her source for tickets was someone named Mark Harlow, and that Harlow had always come through before, but now he had deactivated his Facebook profile and email address.
Tisor told the victims she was planning on filing a police report. None of the 107 victims received either their Taylor Swift tickets or the money used to purchase them.
Harlow was investigated by police and it was determined he was not involved in the sale of the fraudulent concert tickets.
Blake admitted that between Oct. 10, 2023, and Nov. 12, 2024, money from Tisor’s fraudulent ticket sales of Taylor Swift concert tickets was deposited into his bank account via electronic transfers. Blake knew that the funds came from Tisor’s sale of fraudulent tickets. In total, he received $42,495 in electronic transfers from victims.
Tisor and Blake also admitted that between July 1, 2023, and Nov. 28, 2024, they used $139,144 of the funds to place multiple online gaming bets on various platforms, including Bet Rivers and Paybilt Inc. Their bets resulted in a net loss of $56,335.
Between July 1, 2023, and Nov. 28, 2024, Tisor and Blake made approximately 350 cash withdrawals from ATMs totalling more than $297,000.
Court heard that a pre-sentence report (PSR) for Blake is still not complete.
The sentencing hearing will continue with submissions from the Crown and defence once that PSR has been filed.
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