ABTA agrees to pull Pandora Travel bond – 14 Dec 2006

after his case was taken up by Travel Weekly.

Chris McFadden was a sole trader who ran Hull-based Pandora Travel, and was facing personal debts of £45,000. He already had a court judgement against him brought by ABTA president Justin Fleming’s Classic Collection, which was owed £2,000.

ABTA said bonds cannot be used to clear personal debts and wrote to McFadden on August 16 saying it was not in a position to call on Pandora Travel’s bond “because you are continuing or proposing to continue trading”.

McFadden claimed he had to cover the redundancy costs following the collapse of Pandora, insisted he had no other funds and said he risked losing his home if forced into bankruptcy.

When Travel Weekly told him about ABTA’s change of heart, McFadden replied: “That’s the best Christmas present I could have wished for. I was being made to feel like a criminal.”

ABTA eventually agreed to meet McFadden on Tuesday after which the association reversed its decision, back dating the failure date to August 8.

• Another former agent featured in ITV Wales show Wales This Week on Monday. The programme documented the collapse of Mossley Travel in August 2003. Managing partner Bob Green claims ABTA should have acted quicker to pull the bond, but the association said it decided not to intervene in what it believed to be a dispute between Green and his business partner Tom Kynaston.