ABTA bosses have admitted they did not spot the
fraudulent trading at failed agency Spear Business Travel – yet still claim
they are not responsible for its debts.
After our exclusive revelations about the scandal last
week – which saw a member of ABTA staff introduce suspected fraudsters to Spear
Business Travel owner Jitty Trehan, costing him his £25,000 bond – more
damaging evidence has emerged that Newman Street was not aware clients were
being fleeced.
Despite ABTA’s much-publicised fraud crackdown, Travel
Weekly has discovered it was Barclays Merchant Services that actually raised
the alarm. Only then did ABTA ask questions of the Chester-based agency’s new
owners.
As we reported, two of the alleged fraudsters were
known to ABTA through their connection with the suspicious failure of another
agency last year.
And they were allowed to trade for six
weeks, selling non-existent bargain-priced holidays via Teletext and the
Internet, before their membership was terminated.
After learning our story was to be published,
embarrassed ABTA chiefs organised a telephone conference call for board members
to justify their actions.
While board members remained tight-lipped, former ABTA
president Stephen Bath said he believed the association had a moral duty to
foot the bill for the failure. “Trehan might have been a bit naive, but it
doesn’t alter the fact that the people responsible were introduced to him by a
member of ABTA staff,” said Bath.
The ABTA staff member who brokered the deal remains suspended.
Meanwhile, Trehan has vowed to take legal action
against ABTA unless it admits responsibility.
“I accept that my bond should be applied for all the
bookings made by me until I sold the company in February,” he said.
“Despite overwhelming evidence against these men I’m
still having to foot the bill.”