Delco Man Gets Prison For Selling Stolen US Open Golf Tickets

GLEN MILLS, PA — A Delaware County ticket seller has been hit with a prison sentence after being convicted of stealing and selling more than $1.2 million worth of U.S. Open Golf tournament tickets.

Federal authorities said James Bell, 70, of Glen Mills, who owns and operates Sherry’s Theater Ticket Agency, Inc., was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of supervised release, ordered to pay $1,282,247 in restitution to the USGA, and ordered to forfeit more than $598,000 in fraudulent profits for participating in the conspiracy.

In November 2021, Bell pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud in connection with this ticket selling scheme.

As part of his guilty plea, Bell admitted that he conspired with former United States Golf Association employee Robert Fryer, who was charged and convicted separately, to purchase from Fryer tickets to the 2017 through 2019 U.S. Open Golf Tournaments with a face value of more than $1.2 million, which Fryer had stolen from the USGA.

Bell admitted that he paid Fryer over $324,000 for the stolen tickets.

Bell further admitted that he sold the tickets through Sherry’s Tickets for nearly $923,000, thus yielding a profit to Sherry’s of over $598,000.