A WOMAN was left in floods of tears after spending more than £7,000 on Wimbledon men’s final tickets only to be told they did not exist.

Denise Buchan, director and founder of Classic Consulting in Queen’s Road, Brighton, bought the tickets for Roger Federer’s clash with Croat Marin Cilic for the chairman of her company and his son.

She began looking for the sought-after Centre Court tickets last month and came across a company called Platinum Sports Group.

She emailed managing director Stewart Jefferson, who is based in Brighton, and got a response within a few hours on June 23.

She said: “I emailed him and almost straight away he came back and said he had two debenture tickets with access to the debenture lounge.

“It sounded perfect so he sent me an invoice and I paid the £7,200.”

Last week she made contact with Mr Jefferson on numerous occasions to pick up the tickets but kept being told there were problems.

She was increasingly concerned but he reassured her that her chairman, Gary Laurence, and his son could pick them up from the box office on the day of the final.

However, when he turned up on Sunday, box office staff told him there were no debenture tickets. Ms Buchan called Mr Jefferson who told her the tickets were allocated for sponsors, in this case coffee company Lavazza.

Box office staff called Lavazza executives, who were at the final, but they knew nothing of the tickets.

She said: “He was marched over by security to another box office but told the tickets did not exist.

“The seat number and row given on the tickets didn’t even exist on Centre Court.

“It was one of the worst days of my life. It was awful. I just didn’t know what was going on and it was really embarrassing for my chairman who had put his holiday on hold to attend the final.

“I’m not normally emotional but I spent all of Sunday afternoon in tears, it was just awful.”

Mr Jefferson said that he had procured the tickets in good faith from a trusted supplier and had himself been let down.

He promised Ms Buchan she would get a full refund.

Mr Jefferson said: “I’ve apologised to Denise repeatedly. For three hours I was on the phone with her on Sunday. It’s very disappointing for her client on the day.

“The way she’s continuing with this... I’ve said she’s going to be refunded.”

When pressed on why the refund for tickets, purchased on June 23, had not yet been carried out, Mr Jefferson said he was “chasing invoices” in order to “free up the cash flow”.

His previous business was forced into liquidation in January.

He explained he had “got too far behind” with it and said he was honouring its unpaid debts from his own pockets.

In 2014, Mr Jefferson was himself the victim of fraud, paying £22,000 for fictitious Wimbledon tickets to Ashley Taylor who was jailed for three years.

Mr Taylor’s defence was that the tickets were coming from a fictitious third party who let him down.

In 2010 Mr Jefferson, trading as The Sports Partnership, was swindled out of £26,000 by David Hutchison of Ayr who was jailed.

Mr Jefferson said: “It’s the third time in eight years, there are some real cowboys out there.”

A spokesman for Sussex Police said the matter had been turned over to Action Fraud which was investigating whether a fraud could have been committed.

In a letter to Ms Buchan, Action Fraud said it was assessing whether there was enough evidence to pass the case back to Trading Standards or the police.

A spokesman for Action Fraud could not be reached for comment.

Ms Buchan added: “It has really had an impact on me.

“It has damaged my relationship with my chairman, which will be difficult to repair.

“It has also knocked my confidence. You just don’t expect these kinds of things to happen and I wouldn’t wish for it to happen to anyone else.”