Europe, UK (Commonwealth Union) – Authorities have stated that a company that provided half-price hospitality at sold-out sports events has been shut down after abruptly making cancellations of bookings and the failure to issue refunds to customers.
Prive Global Sports Ltd emailed unsolicited messages to potential clients, offering premium corporate hospitality packages for events like the Six Nations Rugby and Formula One Grand Prix.
The company advertised these packages at a substantial discount of about 50 percent, claiming the tickets were available due to cancellations.
However, before the events, Prive Global Sports would email customers to cancel their bookings, promising refunds and free tickets to alternative events.
No refunds were ever issued, resulting in clients losing over £600,000.
Prive Global Sports was ordered to be wound up by the High Court in Manchester on the 21st of this month.
David Usher, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, says “Prive Global Sports never had the rights to the corporate hospitality packages it offered to businesses, scamming them out of hundreds of thousands of pounds instead.”
An inquiry into Prive Global Sports, which commenced in February this year, revealed no proof of legitimate trading activities by the company.
Initially founded in March 2020 under the name Valamus Ltd, the company rebranded as Prive Global Sports.
Several clients informed the Insolvency Service that they had filed complaints with Action Fraud an organization for reporting crime, regarding the company’s conduct.
Both the RFU (Rugby Football Union) and the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), the governing bodies for rugby union in England and global motorsport, issued warnings on their websites, clarifying they had no connections with Prive Global Sports and advising against purchasing tickets from them.
Prive Global Sports also imposed a 20% VAT on each sale, accumulating approximately £120,000 in tax, despite not being registered to make this charge.
The Insolvency Service discovered no proof of the VAT being collected by the company was ever paid to HM Revenue and Customs.
From e-mail scams claiming an individual someone has won a large sum of money then requesting small sum for administrative purposes to dating site scams where scammers would target potential victims claiming to work in military requesting a payment for an urgent activity stating that are unable to access funds, the world has seen scams rapidly increase over the years.
