Two mums who booked tickets to see One Direction fear they will have to tell their daughters that their plans are ruined after the company they used ceased trading.

Elizabeth McHale and Cathy Haran paid £334 to Cavendish Travel for four tickets and coach travel for the concert in Manchester on June 1, 2014, by the band, which features Bradford’s Zayn Malik.

But this week Mrs McHale received a letter from Clark Business Recovery which said the Leeds-based travel company was no longer able to supply the tickets.

Mrs McHale booked with the firm directly, paid by phone and received a hand-written receipt two days later.

Shortly after the reservation was made, Mrs McHale told her Harry Styles-mad daughter, Ava, about the plans.

She said: “It was her birthday in September and I had bought her a couple of things for her to open, then I asked her to go into a different room, to the conservatory, and I had set up a Harry Styles cut-out with a little speech bubble. It said ‘Hi, happy birthday. Hope you’re having a wonderful day. How about coming to see me and the boys in June?’”

The mum-of-two, of Overland Crescent, Apperley Bridge, has not yet claimed a credit card refund just in case she can somehow keep the booking, but she fears it might come to the point that she will have to tell her excited daughter that she can no longer go. “Every room I walk into, there’s a Harry Styles looking at me – it’s not going to be great,” said Mrs McHale.

“Part of the reason we went with Cavendish was because it was a coach going and we thought that would be easier and there would be a lot of their friends going together.”

The director of Clark Business Recovery, Dave Clark, said it was not yet clear how many people were affected.

He said directors of Cavendish Travel (Holdings) Ltd had reluctantly taken the decision to go into liquidation after trading successfully for more than 30 years. It is anticipated it will go into liquidation on December 18.

He said: “Clark Business Recovery Limited is assisting the company with the liquidation process and are collating information regarding bookings made by members of the public.”

He said the company was not able to honour bookings where tickets had not yet been dispatched and that customers should contact their credit card companies regarding refunds.

“We are informed that there are a small number of customers who have paid by debit card,” he said. “The position regarding debit cards varies depending on the contractual terms of the individual card companies.

“ I fully sympathise with any member of the public who has lost money. It is a timely reminder to members of the public to remain vigilant when paying for goods that they will receive in the future and to take appropriate steps to safeguard their money such as paying by credit card or a debit card with a recourse facility.”

The women have contacted the venue, the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, who suggested speaking to promoters SJM which is investigating. “Those seats we had allocated must still be there and we’ve been told Cavendish Travel must have had to pay in advance,” she said.

She said other children at her daughter’s school, Calverley C of E Primary School, were in the same position.