‘Meet and greet with the Indian cricket team’ scamster behind the bars, tickets sold at INR 31K

During India’s ODI and T20I series against Australia, filters with the message ‘Meet and Greet with the Indian Cricket Team’ was seen at the venues. The event was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, January 5 at the Manjtis Wharf restaurant during the time when the Indian team landed in the New South Wales city prior to the ongoing Test match at the SCG.

Promises of “amazing food, beer, wine and soft drink, fantastic interviews and Q&A’s” were made and tickets were priced at 550 Australian dollars, which translates to approximately INR 31,083 per head. On Tuesday, around 200 people, who bought the tickets, were expected to land in Sydney, hoping to spend an evening with the Indian cricketers.

They were set to be greeted by the local police, who informed that they had been duped. Deep Gujral, the general manager at Manjits Wharf, fell prey to the trap as well. The event never happened, but as per reports, the scamster has now been put behind the bars.

“He got in touch with us quite a few months back, which is not unusual. Since ours is a Michelin starred and chef hatted restaurant, a table for two will take four weeks on the waitlist,” Gujral was quoted as saying to The Indian Express.

The Indian team anyway frequently dines at the restaurant, says the GM at Manjits Wharf

“The deposit for booking the entire restaurant is AUD 75,000, but he paid only a 1,000 upfront. When we approached him for the rest of the deposit, we got no answer. So, we knew his event wasn’t going to happen,” he stated.

It’s a restaurant when the Indian cricketers dine regularly and hence has become a target for the fraudsters. Later, on Tuesday, the restaurant broke the agonising news to the ones, who had the fake tickets.

“The Indian team anyway frequently dines at the restaurant, the restaurant is a quality fine-dine Indian establishment, the stars aligned for this guy to try this scam. Our good name has come into disrepute because of this guy.”

“The police luckily caught the guy and he’s in lockup. Now he’ll have to start paying back for everything he’s done,” he added. Gujral also said that they have been delivering meals to the cricketers on a frequent basis.