A team of lawyers will today travel to Dubai to represent a group of Irish investors – many of them pensioners – who sank their savings in to the dream of a sunshine getaway only to lose out massively when the investment stalled.

The lawyers will talk on behalf of the Concerned Dubai Sports City Investors Group, which was set up last year to represent Irish people who bought off-plan apartments through the now defunct Larionovo property agents.

The five-star project by Middle Eastern Development (MED) was originally scheduled for completion in early 2009.

The law firm Anthony Joyce and Co was retained by the Irish group and by a similar representative group in Britain whose members had paid deposits for apartments in the 252-unit project.

“We have raised our concerns with MED that the project should have been built within the specified timeframe,” said Joyce of the firm.

He also made it clear that the company should not seek more money until work goes ahead.

The lawyer was awaiting instructions from the clients on whether to go ahead with the project or seek their money back, which would involve launching legal proceedings in Dubai against the developer.

The investors are worried that as much as E20m – cash many hoped would fund their retirements – is caught up in Dubai in a “limbo” after the failure of Ennis, Co Clare-based Larionovo last year. The Irish investors in the scheme, believed to number as many as 1,000, have had trouble trying to find out what has happened to their money and gathered together the cash to send out the law firm to try to find out where they stand with regard to their initial investment and the building project’s future – if any. The investors bought into the Sports City scheme, part of a massive two billion sq ft mixed theme park, which developers said would “dwarf Disneyworld”. It promised golf courses, indoor and outdoor stadia, various academies – including a Manchester United soccer academy – as well as swimming pools, health spas and many other facilities. The investors say their last correspondance received from the developers said that the project was “on hold”. However, they fear the developments have actually been cancelled and believe the term “on hold” is being used to avoid refunding them. Sold on a buy-to-let scheme through a network of worldwide agents, investors were assured of eight per cent returns for the first three years. Most of the units were sold in 2006 and 2007 with prices ranging from E168,000 to E280,000. An unnamed Irish investor was quoted in the Dubai press as saying he had reserved a two-bedroom unit in January 2007 and had paid 30pc of the total buying price of around E64,700 but heard nothing from the developer for two years. On a recent visit to see the project, he discovered that the developers had scaled down the dimensions to a one-bedroom unit on the construction drawings he was shown, that too without any prior information, according to Dubai-based online newspaper, Zawya.com. The report said the scheme is still on sale through property Website, Dubaicondoproperty.com.