A Manx business owner says he has been left ‘in the region of £50,000 out of pocket’ after the online ticketing company he used for seven years suddenly went into liquidation.

Carl Underwood, who runs Laser Mayhem, Quad Bike Mania and the Coffee Cottage in South Barrule, had used the booking system WebTicketManager since 2018. He said the service had operated without issues until earlier this autumn, when payments stopped arriving.

Carl said he first became concerned in late September when revenue from recent quad-biking sessions and children’s boot camps failed to appear in his account. Matters escalated after his major annual event, the Halloween Scare Maze, which drew more than 1,600 visitors over three nights.

He estimates that more than £30,000 in ticket income is missing. When he factors in associated costs such as staff wages, event setup and honouring pre-booked quad-bike sessions through to New Year’s Eve, he believes the total shortfall is closer to £50,000.

‘We rang the company several times, sent them loads of emails, and then we started digging a little bit more and looked on the companies registry to find that they’d gone into liquidation on November 17,’ Carl said.

‘There was no notice, correspondence, or anything. They left a lady in the office to man the phones, and every time we asked to speak to one of the owners or directors she said that they would ring us back. They never have.’

Isle of Man Today contacted WebTicketManager. Phone lines were being handled by a representative of Dains Accountants, who confirmed the company had been placed into liquidation.

The liquidation is being managed by the Birmingham-registered firm. Carl said he had since been advised by insurers and an advocate that the company has debts of more than £850,000. ‘After speaking to the liquidators, the company is in a debt in excess of £850,000, so the chances of us seeing any of our money again is slim to nil,’ he said.

Carl does not know how many other organisations have been affected. He has contacted several listed users of the platform, including businesses in Liverpool, to alert them. He is urging any other Isle of Man firms using the service to check whether all expected payments have been received and to speak to their insurers if concerned.

‘I just want to warn other companies that this could’ve happened to them,’ he said. ‘I’m a great fan of keeping things local, but the company did have good rates at the time I started using them.’

He said the sudden loss had been difficult to absorb. ‘It’s come as a bit of a shock and it’s a bitter pill to swallow. It feels like they’ve held on until the biggest event of the year to take those funds and then go into liquidation. They’ve probably done it to dozens and maybe hundreds of companies around the UK.’

As a result of the financial impact, the popular Santa’s Grotto at Candy Cane Lane event at South Barrule has been cancelled this year. Carl said he did not have the capacity to stage it following the losses.

‘I haven’t got the motivation or the energy to put that event on at this minute in time,’ he said. ‘We’re looking to do it again next year, but this year I just haven’t got the manpower.’