A YOUNG father has described his disappointment after taking his family to see the Lapland New Forest theme park.

Stephen Dimond told Bristol Crown Court yesterday he bought tickets for his wife and four-year-old son to go to see the attraction.

Instead of the promised “beautiful snow-covered log cabins” and a “magical experience”, he said his family’s experience was nothing like what they were expecting.

With customers charged £30 a ticket and with up to 10,000 advance bookings online, the owners – brothers Victor and Henry Mears – were set to take £1.2 million in ticket sales, the court has been told.

The pair, from Brighton, face five charges of engaging in a commercial practice which is a misleading action and three charges of engaging in a commercial practice which is a misleading omission.

Mr Dimond, from Hampshire, and his parents paid a total of £150 for tickets to the theme park, which was set up at Matchams, near Ringwood.

“The first attraction was the nativity scene, which was on a trailer, which I believe was around 200 to 300 yards away, which we looked at and dismissed it,” he said.

“It was a drawing on a trailer. We moved on.

“It was shocking, far from what I was expecting.”

Describing the “breathtaking tunnel of light”, Mr Dimond said: “It was only at the end that we realised we had gone through it.”

Mr Dimond was asked about his overall impression of Lapland New Forest.

“Very little, if at all, any comparison to what I was sold,” he said.

Within days, Mr Dimond had complained to trading standards and was advised to write to the theme park operators to demand his money back.

He said he had still not been refunded the £90 he personally paid for tickets.

Disgruntled visitor Anita Saunders took her whole family to Lapland New Forest because it was her son’s fifth birthday.

She told the court: “The pictures on the website were colourful. There was reindeer, snowmen, log cabins – it just really looked like the real Lapland.”

Mrs Saunders, from Lyndhurst, added: “I think when we walked through we were expecting to walk through something fantastic, but we were bitterly disappointed.”

Mrs Saunders, who later complained to trading standards, described the queues of people as something out of a movie set concentration camp.

"Everyone was just shuffling around with their heads down," she said.

"When you watch them in a film, shuffling along like in a concentration camp.

"The reality was that there were a few fir trees with coloured patio lights shining out from underneath them."

Mrs Saunders said her family saw several howling husky dogs tethered in pens.

"We saw two reindeer. I have to say that one of the reindeer had a broken antler," she told jurors.

Mrs Saunders said they then saw a long queue to see Santa and decided to go instead to the Polar Post Office, which she described as a "large B&Q shed".

"Inside there were two teenage girls dressed as elves," she said.

"All we saw inside was broken pens, snapped crayons and envelopes."

The brothers deny all charges.

The trial continues.