Arrests made over ticket company

Hundreds of people missed out on V Festival tickets

Five people have been arrested in London in connection with a company selling festival tickets which went into liquidation in August.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is also launching an investigation into Xclusive Tickets, and is making a direct appeal for the public's help.

They would like people who bought tickets from the site but did not receive them to get in touch.

The five people were questioned and later released on unconditional bail.

Parent company Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality Limited is registered to an address in Southwark, south London.

'Very valuable'

SFO director Richard Alderman told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme it was appealing for some 4,000 people who failed to receive 18,000 tickets for events, including festivals, to make contact.

More than 2,500 people who purchased Reading, Leeds and V Festival tickets from the company were affected.

People who bought tickets for the Beijing Olympics also missed out.

"We've put a simple form on our website which will enable people to put details of the tickets they wanted and the loss they suffered," he said.

Mr Alderman added that the public's help would enable his team establish the problem's "full extent" and make a "very valuable" contribution to their fraud probe.

You and Yours reporter Shari Vahl said the move was very unusual and the SFO's first direct appeal for public information in an investigation.