The auditor for Gill’s Cruise Centre did not agree with the agency’s most recent set of accounts when it carried out its audit.
Travel industry accountant Elman Wall said it has a duty of confidentiality which prevented it from commenting on individual clients.
But it confirmed it signed off Gill’s’ 2010 figures with a “qualified audit opinion” – meaning it disagreed with the directors’ accounts.
Accounts for the year to September 2010, due to be have been filed by Gill’s directors by 30 June, have yet to be submitted to Companies House.
As an Abta member, Gill’s would have had to present its latest accounts to the association within six months of its year end or risk censure from the trade body for breaking its rules.
Gill’s assets were sold on Friday in what increasingly appears to have been an arrangement known as a pre-pack administration that saw P&P Associates, which has created a new We Cruise brand, successfully bid for them.
The run up to the administration saw cruise lines first demand payment direct from Gill’s customers and then put them on stop sale as concerns about the agency’s financial status intensified.
Gill’s two directors, chairman Alistair Gill and financial director Aiden Treacy, an insolvency specialist brought in earlier this year, are understood to be staying with the new company in some capacity, along with a small number of staff mainly from its offices in Wales.
Despite Gill’s having half a century of history behind it, the brand and website url were not understood to be among the assets for sale.
Experts told Travel Weekly the fact that Gill’s ceased trading within 12 months of its latest accounts being signed off is likely to ensure the failure comes under closer scrutiny than would otherwise be expected from regulators.
Gill’s, listed on Companies House as E & M E Gill Ltd, is now in formal administration.