FAMILIES who spent thousands of pounds on a luxury villa to celebrate New Year in the sun claim they fell victim of a "horrific" holiday scam.

Nicky and Ralph Hooper said their plans for a festive break in Lanzarote with friends and family were ruined after being "stranded" at the airport with nowhere to go.

The Brighton couple had flown to the Spanish island with their two sons Josh, 11, and Elliot, nine, and their friends the Dunks, who live in Westdene, after paying nearly £3,000 for a week's stay in a lavish villa.

The group of nine were due to be greeted by a representative from luxurycanarianrentals.com - which they booked with after finding the site at the top of a Google search - but claimed no-one ever turned up. They could not contact anyone and could not find the villa.

They resorted to paying top price for last minute hotel rooms for the night, then had to fork out to bring forward their return flights home because all other accommodation on the rest of the island was fully booked ready for the New Year celebrations.

Mrs Hooper, 49, of Surrenden Road, said: "We were just in shock, we could not believe what was happening. "Everyone was upset but the children were particularly sad. We've booked online before and the website looked professional and genuine. We had a booking confirmation and emails back and forth with the property manager. "Now we are trying to get our money back - it's been reported to the police, we've told Google about the site and we're talking to our bank and insurance company. But so far nothing has happened. It's really frustrating. It did ruin our Christmas because we were getting ready for the holiday - that was when we were going to rest and celebrate. We want to warn others against this so they don't have to go through what we did."

Debby Dunk, 50, who also went on the trip with husband Paul, 48, and children Elizabeth, 20, Alfie, 17, and Bertie, 11, said: "There were a few tears at the airport from the younger ones. We were all so disappointed but were trying to stay positive so they did not get too upset."

The two families had split the cost of the trip and Mr Hooper, 58, said he paid the £2,390 price by bank transfer from his HSBC account to a Santander account as instructed by the company.

The flights, the charge to re-arrange the return journey, the hotel rooms and taxis around the island cost them at least £2,000 more.

Mr and Mrs Hooper reported the website to Google on December 29, the day after they returned to the UK, but it was still appearing in Google searches yesterday.

They are now trying to claim back costs through their travel insurance from Nationwide and get help from HSBC and Santander.

City of London Police, which runs Action Fraud - the national centre for reporting allegations of this sort of crime - said the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau was now looking at the Hoopers' complaint.

The Argus made attempts to contact luxurycanarianrentals.com but did not receive a response.