Festival ticket scam is heartbreak for Matthew, 18 (From This Is Cheshire)

Festival ticket scam is heartbreak for Matthew, 18

4:50pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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A TEENAGER who hoped to celebrate his 18th birthday at his first music festival had to watch his favourite bands on TV after a bogus seller left him without tickets.

Matthew Gallagher, of Hastings Avenue, Orford, had tickets for the Leeds Festival bought for his birthday by his grandmother.

His mum, Janine Burns, and her husband, Paul, had ordered two weekend passes for the Priestley College student online. to see the likes of headline acts of Metallica and The Killers.

After finding tickets sold out on official website Ticketmaster they found SOS Master Ticket, which said it still had availability for the festival so they placed their order at a cost of £404.95.

Mrs Burns said: “We do not order a lot on the Internet but it did look legitimate, we had no second thoughts.

“They said the tickets will be sent out in six weeks to one week before the event. But the week before we still hadn’t got the tickets.”

But by Monday the tickets still hadn’t arrived so when the couple tried to get back in touch with the company the phone line was dead.

“Online there were lots of abusive messages to this SOS Master Ticket,” added Mrs Burns.

“My husband e-mailed the company but we’ve still had no reply.

“On the Tuesday we still had no tickets we got in touch with Trading Standards and they got back on Tuesday evening to say it was a scam.”

They were one of the thousands of unlucky people who have been fooled by the company.

Islington Trading Standards has announced they are looking into the company after hundreds of people who had ordered tickets for the V Festival were also left without them. There are also reports that they also sold bogus tickets for Madonna and George Michael.

Police are also investigating the company, but its online address is listed in Spain, making it difficult for police and trading standards to track them.

The family is now in the process of trying to claim back the money that was taken by SOS Master Tickets.

She continued: “The bank have sent some forms out to see if we can get a refund, but we still do not know whether we are going to get the money.”

But worst of all her son had been left without a cherished birthday experience.

“Matthew was absolutely gutted, he was going with his friend. He felt really upset watching it at home rather than being there,” said an upset Mrs Burns.

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