Ticketing retailer TryBooking are suing the organisers of Maitreya Festival, which was cancelled earlier this year after ongoing disputes with local councils who revealed organisers hadn’t sought the appropriate permits to host the event.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, TryBooking are suing Maitreya organisers in the Victorian Supreme Court over more than $400,000 of ticket revenue that’s apparently gone missing. At the time of writing, punters are still awaiting ticket refunds.

TryBooking have reportedly refunded some $520,524 back to ticket-holders who purchased their passes with credit cards. However, $409,082 is still unaccounted for and the company will be going after organisers Lachlan Bell, Julius Webster, and Sophie Oostermeyer to recoup the missing cash.

More than $1 million worth of tickets had been sold via TryBooking at the time of the event’s cancellation. Organisers were permitted to access those funds with TryBooking’s permission, but any funds withdrawn had to be repaid within two days.

The ticketing company alleges more than $950,000 was withdrawn between September 2015 and March 2016. TryBooking is now seeking the $409,082 sum plus damages. In statement, TryBooking CEO Jeff McAlister claimed attempts at communicating with organisers had been unsuccessful.

“The event organiser has not cooperated with us on a refund process as required by our terms and conditions, leading to us pursuing them via legal avenues,” McAlister said. In fact, organisers have been largely silent on the whole.

The last correspondence organisers had with punters was when they confirmed that they simply would not be issuing refunds via their official Facebook page, offering instead to host an event over the Grand Final long weekend.

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