A NORTH-EAST travel agent was duped out of £2,750 by a conman who promised her world cup tickets, a court heard yesterday.

The Old Bailey heard that hundreds of football fans, travel agencies and companies were ripped off by David Spanton, 32, who said his firm, Great Portland Entertainments, could provide any number of tickets for any match.

Hays Travel, in Church Street, Shildon, bought tickets from Mr Spanton, of St Paul's View, Clerkenwell, central London.

Claire Gibson, manager of the branch, received an unsolicited fax from GPE in 1997 and paid £2,750 for a batch of tickets after friends asked her to get hold of World Cup tickets for the England v Colombia match.

Her fears arose in April, when an article in a national newspaper exposed Mr Spanton's activity. In a statement, Ms Gibson said: "Naturally, I was extremely worried about this. I was assured what was said in the article was a load of rubbish and I was assured the tickets would be sent."

After sending the last £500 to Mr Spanton she got a letter on May 1 confirming everything was in order.

But a couple of weeks later a Channel 4 documentary about World Cup ticket fraud featured Mr Spanton and shortly after Miss Gibson was informed the official receiver had been called in.

His firm was closed down after a Department of Trade and Industry investigation on June 1998, with debts of more than £1m.

Mr Spanton denies fraudulent trading and failing to keep and preserve company records.

The court heard Mr Spanton had customers across Europe, the US, South Africa and Japan.

The trial continues.