Baldwins Travel placed in hands of receivers

Baldwins Travel has been placed in the hands of receivers, with documents filed at Companies House noting insolvency practitioners were appointed on May 7.

Receivers may be appointed by a court or secured creditor and are charged with managing and potentially liquidating the assets of a company to satisfy debts owed to a creditor.

The receivers were called in on behalf of loans company Westwood Capital Finance following a period of uncertainty around the future of the business after it was expelled from Abta, had its Iata accreditation suspended and left the Advantage Travel Partnership.

Supplier partners had been attempting to gain clarity on the future of the agency chain in recent weeks, and Travel Weekly understands payments have been made direct to suppliers on Baldwins bookings.

Marks attended the Advantage Travel Partnership conference in Malta this week, saying he wanted to help staff find jobs and reassure partners that information on the business was being processed.

An Abta spokesperson said: “We have confirmed to Abta members that they are able to submit pipeline claims in respect of Baldwins Travel Agency Ltd, a former Abta member.

"As Baldwins is a retail travel agent, customers with holidays booked should be able to carry on with their travel arrangements as planned; they will need to contact their tour operator or travel provider directly. We have not been notified of a failure."

The agency chain, which has 11 branches, lost an appeal in April against its expulsion from Abta for “failing to provide financial information”.

The original decision to terminate its membership had been taken in February before the termination was suspended pending the appeal.

The company had already appealed once, last autumn, against termination of its membership. That decision was revoked in light of undertakings made by Baldwins.

 

Two directors of the company, finance director Christopher Hatfield and chief commercial officer Dan Shaw, subsequently resigned.

Iata confirmed on May 14 that it had suspended Baldwins’ accreditation from April 28, while Advantage also confirmed it was no longer a member.

Abta’s decision to expel Baldwins came after Jack Mason, a former director of Baldwins Travel and head of its parent group Inc & Co, was sentenced to 22 months in prison last October after being found guilty of contempt of court.

Mason was chief executive of Inc & Co Group which acquired Baldwins in September 2021 and was a Baldwins director until December 2023.

He was sentenced in his absence after being found guilty in the High Court in July last year of breaching three freezing orders obtained by Barclays Bank.

 

Sentenced alongside Mason was David Antrobus, Inc & Co chief technology officer and director, who also received 22 months in prison for contempt.

A third respondent Scott Dylan, described as a “person of significant control” in the group which owned Baldwins, also received a 22-month jail sentence having pleaded guilty to contempt mid-way through the trial.

Mason stands to be arrested and committed to prison on his return to the UK from Spain where he is living. Antrobus also faces arrest if he returns from Ireland where he moved following the guilty verdict in July.

The judge found there was “a joint enterprise” by the three to breach freezing orders obtained by Barclays after it launched proceedings against them, and other parties including Inc & Co, in November 2021 alleging a conspiracy “to make unauthorised borrowings” of £13.7 million.

An Inc & Co subsidiary, Inc Travel Group, acquired Baldwins in September 2021 stating it would allow the company “to navigate out of the pandemic”. Inc & Co was jointly owned by Mason and a company called Fresh Thinking Group owned by Antrobus and Dylan.

Barclays had obtained freezing orders – against Inc Travel, Fresh Thinking and Mason – which prohibited the disposal of assets pending a full hearing into the case of the missing £13.7 million.

The assets subject to the freezing orders included 100% of the shares in Baldwins, which the three were found to have moved first to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) and then to one registered in the US state of Delaware.

The main proceedings brought by Barclays over the missing £13.7 million have yet to come to court.