A warrant has reportedly been issued for the arrest of the owner of Ipswich Town Football Club, Marcus Evans over allegations of illegal ticket sales at the Olympics.

According to reports by Irish broadcaster RTE this evening, Rio’s Civil Police Fraud Unit confirmed at a press conference yesterday it had issued warrants for the arrest of four THG Sports executives, including Mr Evans.

It comes after the company, which is owned by Mr Evans, denied allegations of ticket touting at the Rio Olympics claiming there is “no evidence to support the charges”.

Mr Evans’ firm is reported to be under investigation by Brazilian police over claims it was involved in a £2.5million Olympic scam to sell tickets at up to four-times their face-value.

Kevin James Mallon, 36, a Dublin-based executive of THG, Mr Evans’ sports hospitality company, was reported by a national newspaper to have been arrested in Rio on August 5, with police seizing 823 high-end tickets.

Officers were reported to have said the tickets were being sold illegally for up to £6,000 each.

Some tickets seized were marked as being for the Irish Olympic association, which denied any wrongdoing. The authorised ticket re-seller for the Olympic Council of Ireland, Pro 10 Sports Management, said Mr Mallon was facilitating the collection of the tickets by its customers.

THG, which provides corporate hospitality issued a statement deny-ing any wrongdoing, claiming any allegations of deceit are “totally without foundation”.

“The very strong statement issued by Pro 10, the authorised ticket re-seller for Ireland, clearly set out the correct factual position.

“They confirmed that the tickets with the THG representative in Rio, Kevin Mallon, were authorised tick-ets held on behalf of their clients and were not being sold by THG.

“Mr Mallon was acting as the collection point for their clients only.

“There is no question of touting on the part of THG or any deception of any people that bought tickets through the authorised ticket re-seller process.

“The tickets made available by Pro 10 to its clients were at face value plus the allowed allowance only. Tickets have never been sold illegally and we have no knowledge of tickets ever having been voided.

“THG have been advised by their local lawyer that there is no evidence to support any charges and the investigation has produced no elements linking any executives of THG to the allegations made.”

They claimed the accusations were made by Rio’s Olympic organising committee, which it said had ‘an agenda’ against THG in order to support local hospitality providers.

We have been unable to contact Mr Evans or Rio’s Civil Police Fraud Unit for comment.