Bogus Wimbledon tickets warning

Tennis fans have been told to beware of bogus tickets for the Wimbledon finals this weekend.

The chief executive of the All England Club, Ian Ritchie, urged buyers to check the authenticity of the tickets.

Websites are advertising tickets for the men's and women's finals, as well as Andy Murray's semi-final on Friday.

Meanwhile, touts on auction website eBay are cashing in on "Murray-mania", with two Centre Court tickets for the men's final attracting a bid of £2,500.

Another pair, with a face value of £200, attracted bids of £1,260 on eBay.

Murray has to beat American Andy Roddick to make Sunday's final, but many fans believe he is in good enough form to be the first British man to lift the trophy in 73 years.

"It is a perennial problem, but we're doing all we can to prevent it"

It is against the rules of the All England Club to sell on non-debenture tickets.

Of the 15,000 seats on Centre Court, 2,300 are debentures.

Mr Ritchie advised fans to check with the All England Club before buying to ensure tickets were genuine and warned against purchasing from websites that were not well established.

He told the BBC: "We're always worried and we've raised it with the police, and in previous situations we've looked to take out injunctions preventing tickets being put on these sites, so it is a perennial problem, but we're doing all we can to prevent it."

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