Great Little Escapes ceases trading as Atol holder

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed Great Little Escapes has ceased trading as an Atol holder.

The tour operator, which was based in Sandhurst, Berkshire, traded under the names Great Little Escapes, Tunisia First and Your Holidays until its failure on Friday (June 13).

It also traded through the websites themaldives.co.uk, yourholidays.co.uk, thecaribbean.com and greatlittleescapes.co.uk, with its license allowing it to carry 500 passengers. 

The CAA said it understood there were not any customers overseas, while the initial number of estimated forward bookings stood at 141 travellers.

The authority said: “If you are a travel agent of Great Little Escapes LLP and you are currently holding consumer payments which you have not yet paid to Great Little Escapes LLP, you must not use these funds to refund consumers until you have received instructions from the Air Travel Trust.

“Travel agents will be individually contacted by the CAA with specific instructions for these bookings.

“The UK CAA has the power to prosecute offences related to its statutory functions. Person(s) who make fraudulent Atol claims, following the failure of an Atol holder, may be prosecuted by the UK CAA for offences under section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006. The maximum sentence for this offence is 10 years’ imprisonment.”

The authority added that it was collecting information from the company and would update the Atol failure page as soon as possible.

Great Little Escapes traded under the Atol number 5933.