Ticket Tout.com, set up in February 2006, went into administration on 6 March.

“The company’s offices are now closed and no further trading will take place,” said a statement by joint administrators Lane Bednash and Mark Reynolds of Valentine & Co insolvency practitioners.

Initial investigations suggested there was “no possibility of refunds or of providing tickets to consumers who have placed orders with the company due to lack of available funds and the quantum of the claims”, the statement said.

A special website has been set up at Insolvencynoticeboard.co.uk to provide information to the public.

Ticket Tout’s collapse comes just a year after another firm, Getmetickets.net, was closed by the government for overcharging its customers. This latest debacle will hopefully put some pressure on the government to ban the resale of tickets and kill touting altogether. Last month, culture secretary Tessa Jowell said she did not believe there was a need for such legislation; hopefully this may just change her mind.