Hull comedy-goers demand refund to Blackpool gig because Ukraine's war with Russia makes the journey unsafe

Staff at a Blackpool comedy club have claimed they have received a refund request from two punters, who pointed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the reason they could not attend.

According to the Comedy Station Comedy club in Blackpool, the punter in question requested the refund because their journey to the venue from Hull had become unsafe.

The venue shared a screenshot of an email from the couple, who remain unnamed.

Ryan Gleeson, the owner of the club, said the couple first got in touch to ask for a refund a fortnight ago, because one of the ticket-holders had Covid.

One of club's staff offered to move the tickets to an alternative date, but then said they had received a follow-up message saying that a refund was required of "what's going on in Russia."

The member of staff, Rob, refused the request.

However he was then labelled a "scam artist" and so got the owner involved.

The Metro reported that Ryan said: "This was when threats to find out where he lived started, suggestions of being in cahoots with other businesses, calling him awful names and swearing at him.

"Again, bless him, Rob was professional and told her he wasn’t going to continue with the conversation and she should email us instead."