A Surrey travel agent has been prosecuted for the second time in two years by the Civil Aviation Authority for trading without an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence.
Michael Stones of the now defunct Epsom-based 747 Travel, was fined £1,485, ordered to pay £500 costs and forced to refund a customer after pleading guilty to nine offences under the ATOL regulations. Stones was charged in July 1998, but failed to appear in court. He was then tracked down and arrested.
He was prosecuted by the same Epsom magistrates in July 1997 after his other company 101 Flights, in Stoneleigh, Surrey, also traded with no licence.
David Moesli, deputy director of the CAA’s Consumer Protection Group, said Stones’ prosecution was the second time an unlicensed agent had been forced to compensate customers.
In July, Leeds agent Gurmit Chaggar, of Economy Travel, was fined £5,000, ordered to pay the CAA’s prosecution costs and £6,700 in compensation to customers after pleading guilty to operating without a licence.
Moesli said: “It is unusual for the magistrates to order compensation for those who have lost out as a result of agents trading illegally.”