A MAN told how he has been left almost £500 out of pocket after being sold scam air tickets to Munich.

In June, Steve Grosvenor paid more than £470 for three tickets with Sea Air from Southend Airport to the German city next Tuesday.

He received confirmation and the tickets from the German airline, but when he went to check if he needed to book in online he found the flight didn't exist.

Mr Grosvenor, 58, of Galton Road, Westcliff said: "I went on the Southend Airport website and on the destination list I clicked on Munich which took me to the Sea Air website. I booked three tickets and received confirmation. We were going next Tuesday so I went to the airport website to see if I needed to check in online, only discover the flight doesn't exist. There is no flight to Munich.

"I went to the airport but they couldn't help.

"The Sea Air website is still advertising flights to and from Southend. It looks like a perfectly legitimate website but it's a scam."

Mr Grosvenor added: "If I hadn't checked I would have been none the wiser and we would have turned up for our flight on Tuesday. I was going to Bavaria for a week with my wife and son and had booked a hire care. I paid by Paypal so I don't think I'm going to get my money back. I've had to buy the tickets again going from Stansted.

"I can't believe I am the only one who bought tickets for that flight and others will probably turn up on Tuesday only to be disappointed."

A Southend Airport spokesman expressed sympathy and said: "As soon as Sea Air indicated to us it would not go ahead with its two new routes to Munich and Osijek from London Southend Airport we removed all details of this from our website.

"We also sought assurances from the airline that any passengers who had booked tickets for these services would be contacted by Sea Air and informed of the cancellation. The airline provided these assurances. As flight bookings are made directly between a passenger and their airline, an airport does not actually have access to passenger information, and so has no way to contact passengers direct. We sympathise with any passengers adversely affected and anyone with queries should contact Sea Air directly via www.sea-air.info"

The Echo contacted Sea Air but at the time of going to press they had not responded.