Crisis meeting set to discuss Hamilton fiasco

Investigation promised into firm’s collapse

Crisis meeting set to discuss Hamilton fiasco

Report by TANYA JEFFERIES

A CREDITORS’ meeting for the estimated 200 individuals and companies owed money bynow defunct consolidator Hamilton Travel will be held on September 1.

The gathering will be held at 11am at the offices of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Plumtree Court, London, which is currently acting as insolvency practitioner on behalf of Hamilton’s directors.

It is likely the creditors, who include some 70 employees of the London-based company, will officially appoint PriceWaterhouseCoopers as liquidator at the meeting.

Its tasks will include recovering and distributing the money owed to the creditors and investigating the cause of the company’s collapse.

Hamilton managing director Mark Taylor has blamed an accounting blunder dating back five years for its demise. Sources said the mistake led the firm to believe it had £1 million more than it actually did. Taylor has refused to comment on who made the error and why it was not discovered earlier.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers director Ian Oakley Smith said if his company was appointed liquidator, it would make the investigation into Hamilton’s collapse a priority. However, he admitted the probe was likely to take several months. He was unable to comment on the total amount that is owed to creditors.

Oakley Smith said that Hamilton’s most saleable asset was a newly developed, password-protected extranet site which allowed agents to search for and book flights, Eurostar trips, hotels and car hire over the Internet (Travel Weekly June 19).

“The company invested quite a bit in the extranet and there is hope it will be worth some money,” he said.

Oakley Smith said he expects it to attract around four or five potential buyers. Gold Medal Travel managing director Wayne Pearce said he had held discussions with Hamilton about a potential buyout but had decided against the move because the company was worth less once it had ceased trading.

He claimed that Gold Medal’s own extranet site was already at a more advanced stage than Hamilton’s.

Taylor: held last-minute talks with Gold Medal Travel but no agreement was struck