Third ex-Baldwins owner handed director ban

The Insolvency Service has banned a third former owner of Baldwins Travel, Jack Mason, from being a company director.

Mason, who became a Baldwins director and chief executive of its owner following the travel agency’s acquisition for £2.8 million in September 2021, was disqualified for seven-and-a-half years at the end of March.

The government’s Insolvency Service found Mason was a director of eight companies used to move more than £12 million in unauthorised Barclays Bank overdrafts to companies controlled by his associates Scott Dylan and David Antrobus – part of total unauthorised transactions of £13.9 million.

Mason resigned as a Baldwins director in December 2023 following a transfer of ownership of the company and other assets overseas in breach of a court order.

The companies used to transfer the money were then wound up, leaving debts of more than £52 million – some of them purportedly owed to Dylan – excluding the cost of subsequently liquidating Baldwins Travel.

None of the missing money has been recovered.

Baldwins was wound up in July last year by director Nick Marks, a member of the family which owned the business up to 2021 when Mason, Dylan and Antrobus bought it.

Mason, Dylan and Antrobus each received 22-month prison sentences for contempt of court after breaching freezing orders obtained by Barclays in the same month that they acquired Baldwins, although only Dylan has served his sentence. Antrobus fled to Ireland and Mason to Barcelona, leaving warrants for their arrest outstanding.

Dylan and Antrobus were disqualified as company directors in December – Dylan for 13 years, having been described by a High Court judge as the “driving force” behind the “scam”, and Antrobus for 10.

All three were declared bankrupt last year.

Insolvency Service chief investigator Victoria Edgar said Mason committed “a serious breach of his responsibilities as a director . . . of eight companies that played a central role in a scheme that caused significant financial harm”.

Dylan now claims to run a venture capital company, NexaTech Ventures, despite being disqualified.

Proceedings initiated by Barclays against Mason, Dylan and Antrobus in pursuit of the missing money remain outstanding.