Thousands of music fans have been left angry and out of pocket this week after a suspected scam operator failed to supply tickets for three of Britain’s biggest festivals.

SOS Master Tickets sold between 400 and 800 tickets to last weekend’s V Festival and more than 1,000 to this weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals, each for up to £200, but it failed to provide any tickets. Many unhappy fans have now turned up at the Reading site hoping to buy tickets at the gates. Hundreds more SOS customers have given up hope of receiving tickets to forthcoming concerts by Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, George Michael and Madonna.

SOS’s website, which gave a Spanish address for the company, was taken down yesterday and all phone and fax numbers were unavailable. The company has retained thousands of names, addresses and credit card details.

Graham Burns, chairman of the Association of Secondary Ticket Agencies, told The Times that he had warned the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the Department for Business and local trading standards about the website three months ago.

“I telephoned all of them and told them this site was out to fleece the public. [SOS] were selling tickets for under trade prices, which was a real red flag,” he said. “They just put me off. Apparently this sort of thing isn’t a priority for them. Everyone I spoke to is now on holiday. It’s a disgrace.”

He added: “We urgently need a code of practice which companies selling tickets have to sign up to. Otherwise this sort of thing is just going to happen again.”

Mr Burns also called the Metropolitan Police computer crimes unit three weeks ago. But he said that the detective sergeant he spoke to was also now on holiday.

The OFT and Islington council trading standards said they had no record of Mr Burns’s call.

When SOS’s customers had not received their tickets for the V Festival with a week to go, they were told to go to the venue and collect them in person. However, the company’s representative did not turn up and their mobile phone calls went unanswered.

Jo Kay, who had bought a V Festival ticket from SOS, said: “I got there to find about 30 people also waiting, and waiting, still trying to get through to SOS. Eventually, at about 7.30pm, the phone was switched off.”

Joseph Hawke, 18, of Lewisham, southeast London, said: “There are people at the Reading Festival running around like headless chickens trying to get tickets now. I bought two tickets for £360 - it seemed pretty cheap then. Now I know why.”

Secondary ticket agencies are not official ticket outlets. They snap up and sell on tickets to sold-out events at inflated prices. The Association of Secondary Ticket Agencies has a code of practice and a code of ethics, but SOS was not a member.

Mr Burns said that fans who paid for tickets with credit or debit cards should contact their card issuer.

SOS is registered to a residential address in Islington, North London. Last week its managing director sent out an e-mail promising refunds and compensation.

A spokesman for Islington council said: “Trading standards are aware of SOS Master Tickets and are in the process of carrying out an investigation. So far there have been more than 300 complaints to the National Consumer Direct helpline.”

A spokesman for Reading and Leeds festivals warned people against buying from unofficial sources. “But we cannot prevent individuals purchasing from sites like these that appear without warning, and usually disappear without warning too,” he said.

Read all about Reading Festival in this book.

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