A woman was left stranded at Manchester Airport after paying more than £800 for a ticket which ended up being a scam.

Samina, who only wished to give her first name, was due to travel to Los Angeles via Paris on Wednesday, May 10.

She had booked the tickets only a day before following an emergency and was hoping to arrive in LA in time for a family funeral.

She said she had made the booking after calling Northern Holidays Limited, which is listed as being based in Heywood, Manchester.

She said: “I needed to get to LA in time for a funeral and started searching for tickets.

"On Google I put in 'cheap flights'. I rang the number and put it down thinking I needed to be sure it was legitimate; the company then rang back from the same number.

“The tickets for a Virgin flight were for around for £665.60 and an agency fee on top. I checked and all appeared to be fine.

“I made a payment of £150 via bank transfer for and then later £665.60 for the airline ticket.”

Samina says she received an email confirmation with a booking number which she has forwarded to the Lancashire Telegraph.

She has also sent confirmations of payments made.

She said: “I was not doubting anything at this stage as it had a full itinerary.

“I got up early the next day and got to the airport for 6am, a couple of hours before the flight was due to leave.

“When I got there I went to the Virgin desk and I was told there were no tickets in my name.

"I rang the number but there was no reply and nobody has responded to my calls.

“I had to go home and got home for 1pm. I did ring the bank and tried to get them to stop the payment, but they said they couldn’t stop it and I would have to claim afterwards.”

Samina added: “The company looks legitimate. I should have been more careful but this is a lot of money and I don’t know if I will ever get my money back.

"I have travelled to many places before and I thought I was clued up and this has never happened."

When contacted Northern Holidays Limited said it did not have an e-mail address for us to forward a query.

The company took down our number and said they would respond to our query.