Schoolchildren caught in World Cup ticket scam |
|
|
Published
:
Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:05
|
LONDON - Around 350 school children aged between 11 to 15 years of age appear to have been swindled by a World Cup ticket scam. These youngsters had gone to Germany hoping to catch the action live in a stadium. However the tickets that were sourced through their tour operator failed to materialize.
Activ4, the Shrewsbury-based tour operator, which provided the package to the school children, said they were the victims of an "international ticket scam". A spokesperson for the company said, "It is with great regret that our business and therefore our customers have been made victims of an international ticket scam. Activ4 is outraged by this callous act of fraud and will continue to offer the police our full cooperation in their respective investigations."
The packages cost almost £400 a head and the school children were looking forward to witnessing the England games. The Kent Police have launched an investigation. "We can confirm that we are investigating an allegation of this nature and that it is against a company in Swanley," said a statement issued by the department. "This is in the early stages of investigation and at this stage we are not working with police in Germany."
The Prime Minister Tony Blair said that they would try to help the kids, but a DCMS spokeswoman said that it would be difficult to find the required tickets. "It will be very difficult to find 400 tickets," she said. "We are going to try to do our best. Richard will obviously try to find a solution tomorrow."
Reacting to the incident, Andreas Herren, spokesman for Fifa said that the incident confirmed their worst fears, "Unfortunately the incident confirms what Fifa and the local organizing committee have been warning against from the start, that only tickets from official sources should be acquired and not other sources of a dubious nature."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
London leads U.K. house price rally 