An event which promised children the chance to meet "real-life unicorns" has been cancelled at the last minute.
A UK-wide tour of Unicorn Dream was announced in April, promising to bring children face-to-face with horses dressed as unicorns, along with gifts, VIP experiences and photographs, costing up to £129.
Chronicle Live is now reporting the Newcastle event has been cancelled with less than two weeks notice.
The company confirmed the event which was to take place on July 13 and 14 has been cancelled as the planned venue had not been properly booked.
A spokesperson claimed all money paid for tickets had been sent back, and could be expected to arrive "within three to seven days".
The company's website is now in maintenance mode with a statement which says: "Sorry for the inconvenience. Our website is currently unavailable at this time. We will be back as soon as we can."
The tour has been beset by problems, with events cancelled due to bad weather, issues with council certification and low numbers.
Staff at the planned venue, Newcastle High School for Girls, said they'd never confirmed the booking.
Jane Hall, of South Shields, had paid £37 to take her three-year-old daughter Sadie, to the event.
She first became suspicious when she was emailed on Saturday by members of a Facebook group claiming 'Unicorn Land' was a scam.
"When she raised her concerns, the company sent her an email claiming: "It is not the case that anyone has been conned, given false information or booked into an event that was not happening and we have not spent months preparing for."
But on Monday afternoon, Jane was informed by ChronicleLive the company had pulled the plug.
She said: "I'm a bit gutted because we're expecting a baby by the end of the year and we had all these experiences planned for Sadie over the summer.
"There is some anger, it's kids isn't it? It is letting children down. I don't know if he is actually a scam artist or just trying to do something he couldn't go - we will see if the refund comes through."
Christine Marsh, from Howdon, North Tyneside , had paid £79 for a 'superstar' package for her unicorn-obsessed granddaughter Paighton, six.
Christine said: "It was my granddaughter's birthday present, she will be devastated.
"I was worried they were going to rip people off, but when I rang this morning they said it was happening, so I haven't told her anything, I'll have to tell her now. I'm gutted."
Contract had not been signed
On Monday morning, the spokesperson, who gave his name only as Darren said he was "looking forward to the event".
But by the afternoon, he said further discussions with the planned venue had led to it being cancelled.
Organisers had hoped Newcastle High School for Girls would be transformed into 'Unicorn Land' in less than two weeks time.
But the school said although it had received an enquiry from Unicorn Dreams about the event, details had not been confirmed and a contract had not been signed.
The spokeswoman said it would now be too late for the event, set to take place on July 13 and 14.
'All we can do is apologise'
The Unicorn Dream spokesperson said: "We've been in conversation with the school since early June, the event was going ahead.
"On Friday we sent forms over and they had all the information. We thought it was going to be confirmed by the close of play today.
"We've done our best, we've refunded everyone now. It is our fault because we've been talking to them since June and I thought it was a confirmed location but apparently it was not 100% confirmed. To find a new location within two weeks would be impossible.
"I do want to give our apologies that we couldn't do the event, all we can do is apologise. I would like to think that we could have put on the event and it was our full expectation to put this event on."
The spokesman said he had been expecting around 30 families, as "about 50%" of people who had booked had already asked to cancel after seeing negative reviews of previous events.
He said other events were set to proceed "for the time being" but he "didn't know" if anything else might get in the way of them.
