A senior City financier and a former Tory minister have been dragged into the row over the collapsed scottish airline Flyglobespan, according to a report in The Sunday Times.
City financier Derek Tullett and former Tory minister Sir Edward du Cann sit on the advisory board of payment clearing company E-Clear.
E-Clear has been in the spotlight since the failure of two high profile firmslast week with which it had links, Scottish operator Globespan, owner of the Scottish airline and Allbury Travel Group.
Flyglobespan went into administration on December 16 leaving 4,500 customers abroad. In the same week holiday company Allbury Travel which had links to E-Clear, also collapsed.
According to the newspaper, travel industry sources said Tullett had been active at E-Clear’s Berkeley Square headquarters, holding negotiations with clients who were concerned about the failure of Flyglobespan and Allbury.
The Sunday Times report confirmed that du Cann chaired its advisory board, and Tullett was a member of the same group.
Tullet was also revealed as a shareholder and director at Nord Finanz Bank, a Bremen-based bank that is now owned by E-Clear.
Last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators of Globespan Group, called for the £35m held by E-Clear to be placed in a joint account immediately.
A company statement from E-Clear reported in The Sunday Times said: “The monies were not due at this time. We legally held the money because it is our duty to protect the consumer and cover our exposure. There are about 100,000 Flyglobespan customers who had paid in advance for flights in the future and last Monday we began refunding them.
“Flyglobespan wanted us to advance these monies ahead of time, but we had become aware of its financial problems and that its credit insurance had been withdrawn. If we had advanced the money and the firm had gone under, we would have been liable to pay those 100,000 customers from our own funds. We have been co-operating closely with PWC and we feel positive about the outcome.”
Last Week, travelweekly.co.uk exclusively revealed details of another dispute between credit card processing company E-Clear and a travel client over outstanding payments. Totally Travel, a former client of E-Clear, claimed it was forced to threaten legal action this summer before reaching an agreement to have a £200,000 debt paid.