IT was a pantomime from start to finish. Lapland New Forest made headlines all over the world when it was launched at Matchams raceway, near Ringwood in November 2008.

Convicted VAT dodger Victor Mears from Brighton wanted a festive theme park but did not have the money to set one up himself.

So he made verbal deals - by his own admission he went about business like a market trader - and hoped the money would come in when tickets were sold.

The sales were good - 42,000 tickets priced at up to £30 raising £1.2 million - but the result was a disaster.

There were a record 5,000 complaints to trading standards and front page stories in the national press about angry and disappointed parents punching a hapless Santa.

Visitors found a painted nativity scene on a board in a muddy field, expensive burger stands, and bare sheds masquerading as alpine chalets.

When the Daily Echo visited, one elf was bunking off in the customer car park and having a smoke.

The temping agency pulled its staff and the site closed - Mears blamed sabotage, crowd manipulation, unscrupulous press reporting, and the bank's decision to freeze the company's account.

Santa was supposed to be the star but 67-year-old Victor Mears was the focus of the legal fall out.

At the ensuing creditors' meeting in a Southampton hotel, one person asked shouldn't he, as a director, accept responsibility for running his business in a professional and diligent way?

"I am sorry, I don't understand the question," said Mr Mears.

He then admitted dealing in large cash sums without keeping receipts - under questioning from the gentleman from HM Revenue and Customs.

And his attempts to avoid being photographed led to farcical scenes.

He blundered about the hotel with his coat over his face until he bumped into someone and said: "Don't harass me!"

His helper from the liquidator Grant Thornton had to explain: "It's me!"

Mears told the creditors he could neither read nor write.

And he said he was suffering from a terminal illness - then stood up and showed off his colostomy bag when someone raised doubts.

Mr Mears told them in his slow, deep, cockney-inflected voice: "I have the greatest sympathy with the public and I feel you have been treated shabbily."

The trading standards prosecution was launched for misleading the public and it with took just under two years to reach trial.

Victor Mears repeatedly claimed he was too ill to stand trial - despite being seen smoking outside the court - and there were further delays as the case was moved to Bristol after he asked for a switch from Bournemouth.

He represented himself and launched attacks on the judge, his previous legal representation, and the prosecution.

During one hearing he slumped forward groaning with pain and his son walked out in disgust. When the prosecution offered him water, he suggested they would rather see him water-boarded.

The jury did not sit for a week in early January while he underwent medical tests, but doctors ruled he was fit enough to continue.

He claimed he could not get a fair trial, saying: "It doesn't matter if you try the case in Timbuktu, you will not find a jury that hasn't heard about this."

He made and withdrew legal applications and crossed swords with the exasperated judge several times.

Mears claimed in his defence that he invested large sums of money - such as £5,000 on gingerbread men - but was bullied and short-changed.

Husky trainer Nigel Garner flew in from Norway to say visitors had been "full of compliments".

But the jury believed the disgusted customers.

Angela Barnes, from Southsea in Hampshire, said she believed the descriptions on the park's website, which offered a winter wonderland.

Instead, she found fairy lights hung from trees, tethered dogs, a plastic polar bear and a broken ice rink.

"I thought it was an introduction to what was going to get better," she said, of her first impressions, "I didn't realise I was inside."