ANGRY customers who paid hundreds of pounds for tickets to the failed Lapland theme park in the New Forest have reacted furiously to news there will be no refund.

Accountants have told creditors are owed £1.2 million and there is no point pursuing Victor and Henry Mears, the brothers behind the 2008 debacle, for £200,000 which remains unaccounted for.

The brothers were jailed for 13 months earlier this year for misleading customers.

Grandfather-of-three Eddie Teague, who shelled out more than £275 on tickets for the attraction, which was based at Matcham’s Leisure Park, told of his frustration when he received a letter from the administrator’s solicitors telling him there was no chance of recouping his money. “I’ve just decided to write it off,” the 64-year-old said. “I don’t think there’s much hope. I bought those tickets in good faith for my family as a treat, but it was truly awful. We really were ripped off.

“I just want to forget about it now. I’ve done everything I can do, I even contacted trading standards. I just hope they’re not allowed to do anything like this again when they get out.”

Visitors to the park complained it was shoddy, poorly organised and failed to live up to its advertising or £30-a-ticket price tag.

David Young, of liquidator Grant Thornton, said none of the creditors, including hundreds of ticket holders, got their money back. He said: “No one got a penny – not even us.”

Grant Thornton held a final creditors’ meeting to report on the investigation into the company.

A statement from Grant Thornton said: “Further investigation into the financial status of the director and his brother determined that it would not be commercially viable to pursue and enforce individual claims against them.”

Card payment processor Streamline, which paid out £682,000 in refunds, was left the major creditor, owed £277,910. Hundreds of individual ticket holders were also owed money, with some customers claiming as much as £450.

The process of unpicking the company’s accounts was complicated by the fact that cash was used for most payments.

The brothers have been granted leave to appeal their criminal convictions because a juror was found at the end of the trial to have been swapping text messages about the case with her fiancé in the public gallery. Irene Poole, 69, was fined £250.

Henry Mears is also due to appear at Bristol Crown Court on July 11 accused of threatening a prosecution barrister at the beginning of their trial.