A JURY retired today to consider its verdict on two brothers accused of misleading thousands of customers into visiting a Lapland-style theme park.

Victor and Henry Mears deny eight charges of selling misleading advertising in relation to the park at Matchams near Ringwood.

A trial at Bristol Crown Court heard that the pair could have made more than £1 million from up to 10,000 advanced ticket sales.

Visitors to Lapland New Forest were offered a winter wonderland with snow-covered log cabins, a nativity scene, husky dogs, polar bears and other animals, as well as a bustling Christmas market.

But instead of the promised magical festive treat, visitors experienced fairy lights hung from trees and a broken ice rink, jurors were told.

Within days of the attraction opening in November 2008, hundreds of disgruntled visitors to the park on the Hampshire-Dorset border complained to trading standards officials that they had been ripped off.

Less than a week later the attraction closed, with its owners blaming the media and sabotage by ``New Forest villains'' for the decision.

The case against Victor Mears, 67, of Selsfield Drive, and Henry Mears, 60, of Coombe Road, both Brighton, East Sussex, is being brought by Dorset Trading Standards.