Baldwins Travel wound up at High Court hearing

Baldwins Travel was formally wound up at a High Court hearing on July 9, Travel Weekly has confirmed, ahead of a meeting of Abta board members yesterday (July 17) to discuss the fall-out from the failure.

 

A winding up petition was filed in May by director Nick Marks, sole remaining member of the family which owned and managed Baldwins for 30 years to September 2021 who was still involved in the business.

 

The hearing had been adjourned from its original scheduled date on June 25 for undisclosed reasons and no details of the winding up have been released.

 

The company had been in difficulty for some time. Abta terminated its membership on April 1, Iata suspended Baldwins’ accreditation on April 28, the Advantage Travel Partnership confirmed Baldwins was no longer a member, and investment firm Westwood Capital Finance sent in receivers on May 7, seizing the company’s head office in Tunbridge Wells and buildings in Tonbridge and Tenterden.

 

However, Baldwins’ difficulties extend back to September 2021 when it was acquired by Inc Travel Group, part of a web of companies run by Jack Mason – who became a Baldwins director – Scott Dylan and David Antrobus.

 

The acquisition appeared to save the business, which had a good reputation among customers and trade partners, from a threat of administration during the pandemic – Baldwins’ having served notice of its intention to appoint an administrator in August 2021.

 

However, two months after its takeover, Barclays Bank issued civil court proceedings against Mason, Dylan, Antrobus and others in pursuit of £13.7 million in “unauthorised borrowings” made from multiple Barclays’ accounts and cards over several weeks in 2021.

 

Barclays claimed £2.8 million of this money was used to acquire Baldwins and, in the High Court, sought a series of freezing orders on the assets of Mason, Dylan, Antrobus and their businesses – including Baldwins – preventing their transfer beyond the jurisdiction of UK courts.

 

Baldwins traded through the post-pandemic recovery period and even expanded beyond Kent to open its 10^th and 11^th agencies.

 

But in July 2024, Mason, Dylan and Antrobus were found to have breached the freezing orders by moving assets, including ownership of Baldwins, first to a company in the British Virgin Islands and then to the US state of Delaware.

 

They were found guilty of contempt – with Dylan pleading guilty to two charges mid-way through the trial – and in October were sentenced to 22 months each in prison.

 

Dylan went straight to jail, having attended the sentencing hearing but Mason and Antrobus did not attend – Mason remaining in Spain and Antrobus in Ireland, with warrants issued for their arrest on return to the UK.

 

The High Court judge ruled Barclays had proved “to the criminal standard” that the three men breached the orders and that he was satisfied they remained the ultimate owners of Baldwins and the other assets.

 

At the sentencing, the judge offered the three up to 12 months’ remission on their sentences if the assets were returned to the UK but received no response.

 

Abta unavoidably incurred legal costs in terminating Baldwins’ membership after its membership committee first acted to expel Baldwins last autumn only for the decision to be revoked on appeal in return for certain undertakings.

 

The association felt compelled to to terminate Baldwins’ membership a second time in February for “failing to provide financial information” its directors had pledged to provide, only to reinstate the company again and allow a further appeal.

 

This final appeal was allowed to avoid a threatened injunction and the associated legal costs of a High Court hearing and potential award of costs to cover the fees of counsel acting on behalf of Baldwins and its owners despite Abta’s confidence that its interpretation of the rules and appeals process was correct.

 

As a result, Baldwins’ membership was finally terminated on April 1.

 

Travel Weekly understands the final bill for these legal costs was "much lower" than the figure "in excess of £200,000" previously reported.

 

Abta said the full amount would remain confidential, but the association’s legal costs will necessarily be accounted for in the association’s accounts for the period.

 

The association confirmed members could “submit pipeline claims in respect of Baldwins Travel” in May.

 

It has subsequently clarified that there are "no issues with members’ claims having missed a deadline", saying: "Members have until November 15 this year to submit a claim."

 

However, there are concerns that some suppliers may not be entitled to refunds through the Abta pipeline protection scheme because they extended credit to the company or did not follow the debt-chasing process under Abta’s claims rules.

 

An Abta spokesperson said: “Given the high-profile and unusually complex nature of the Baldwins Travel case, it’s to be expected that a general update would be provided to the Abta board.”

 

Barclays has now filed bankruptcy proceedings against Mason, Dylan and Antrobus

 

Nick Marks was not available for comment.

 

This story was updated with additional informtion at 2.58pm on July 18.