Tickets to Games on offer from 'swindling' websites

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Customers have lost thousands of pounds worth of tickets for music festivals including this weekend's V Festival.

The website scam offers tickets ranging from Olympic events in Beijing to Premiership football matches.

Today trading standards officials said they were investigating dozens of complaints about the company - apparently run by Terence Butts - after an Evening Standard investigation.

The network includes chinaolympic2008tickets.com - which claims to offer guaranteed tickets to every event in Beijing - and summerfestivaltickets.com, for tickets to festivals around the world.

It comes after the parents of British swimming gold medallist Rebecca Adlington lost £1,100 buying tickets for the Games on a different bogus site.

Victims of the V Festival scam include 22-year-old Lucy Bulkeley from Pinner. She spent £1,200 on tickets as a surprise for her boyfriend but on Friday got an email from the bogus site saying there were no tickets and advising her to claim a refund from her credit card company.

She said: "I don't know what to do, it has ruined his birthday surprise and now it looks like we won't go to the festival at all." There are scores of postings on the site forums from customers claiming they have not received tickets.

The sites were apparently registered at an address in Thornton Heath by a Mr John Lupton. But Mr Lupton denies any knowledge of the scam and said someone must be using his name on the sites.

Croydon Council, which oversees Thornton Heath, today said it is investigating. "We are aware of a number of allegations made against this company," a spokesman said. The Office of Fair Trading is also investigating.

The network of sites is believed to be run by a registered company called Durban Vienna, based in Harrow. It lists Terence Butts as its director, who registered a Kensington address in the company filings at Companies House.

However, the Evening Standard was unable to contact him at the address,or at telephone numbers listed on his various websites.