A GREEDY businessman who ripped off thousands of music lovers in a £2.65million scam has been jailed for eight years.

Gary Agar, 44, of Victoria Road, South Ruislip, and his brother-in-law Andrew Lagan, 49, from Middlesbrough, duped fans of acts including Kings of Leon, Jay-Z (pictured) and Sir Paul McCartney into buying non-existent tickets for concerts and festivals.

They sold tickets via the internet and processed the payments through the account for their company, Good Time Entertainments (GTE) between November 2009 and October 2010.

After payments had been made to Allied Irish Bank, the money was either withdrawn in cash or siphoned off into accounts in Budapest or Thailand, which Agar would regularly visit.

At the end of a two-week trial at Harrow Crown Court, the two men were both convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of converting or transferring criminal property, and both were given eight-year jail terms.

Judge Martyn Barklem said: “It was a nasty and greedy fraud aimed at duping large numbers of people, mostly young people who bought tickets in good faith.”

Agar set up GTE in June 2003, but by 2006 the company’s profits were dwindling and he formally resigned as its director. He handed over the reins to Lagan, but remained a signatory for the business.

In autumn 2009, Agar informed the company’s accountant that it had effectively ceased trading, but was going to continue processing credit cards for a company in Budapest.

When customers did not receive their tickets, they contacted their credit or debit card issuers, who in turn contacted First Data International (FDI), which handled the purchases.

The combined loss to customers who paid by debit card, and to FDI, was said to be more than £2.65m.

Many music fans were never reimbursed and only £1.9m was returned via chargebacks.

Some of the transfers were made to Link FX money exchange in Victoria, where more than £1.5m in cash was withdrawn.

David Rolls, 48, from Poplar, was cleared of all charges after insisting he had no knowledge of the scam and merely operated as a courier.

All three men denied two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of converting or transferring criminal property.