A scam company which targeted businesses with hospitality tickets for the F1 British Grand Prix has been wound up by the Insolvency Service.
Informa Expo Ltd, trading as Informa Hospitality Group, inflicted losses of around £230,000 on customers, according to the insolvency body, by offering hospitality packages to Silverstone.
Customers did not receive the tickets they had paid for, with Informa Expo Ltd claiming the packages were available at a heavily discounted price due to cancellations elsewhere.
F1 red flag
David Usher, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Informa Expo never had the rights to hospitality packages for this year’s British Grand Prix. This did not stop it, however, from scamming businesses out of significant sums of money.
“This is the third company claiming to sell hospitality packages for high-profile sporting events we have successfully applied to have wound-up in the last year.
“We will not tolerate companies acting in such an objectionable manner which is clearly not in the public interest and we will continue to take robust action if we uncover evidence of similar wrongdoing from other businesses.”
An Insolvency Service statement added: “Investigators spoke to the sole hospitality provider for the British Grand Prix which confirmed it had served a cease-and-desist letter on Informa Expo for its unauthorised advertising and sale of hospitality.
“Warnings about the company were also published by the FIA, the governing body of motorsport.”
Informa Expo reportedly charged 20 per cent VAT on each sale, collecting around £46,000 in tax, when it was not registered to do so.
The Insolvency Service shut down Darcella Ltd and Prive Global Sports Ltd earlier this year for similar sporting scams.
This year’s British Grand Prix saw over 400,000 fans attend Silverstone Circuit across the race weekend.
Silverstone will continue to operate dynamic pricing for its fan tickets in 2025.