Abta has terminated the membership of Kent-based travel agency group Baldwins Travel, with a member search of the Abta site on Monday resulting in the statement: “The company you’re looking for is not an Abta Member.”
An Abta spokesperson confirmed: “Abta’s Members’ Committee, which comprises Abta members operating in an independent capacity, has decided to terminate the membership of Baldwins Travel Agency Ltd with immediate effect after it failed to provide the financial information required of them as an Abta member.”
The termination of membership means the withdrawal of Abta financial protection for pipeline money on future bookings with Abta member tour operators and other suppliers. However, pipeline money on existing bookings would remain protected.
In a brief statement, Baldwins Travel director Nick Marks said: “We are surprised and disappointed by Abta’s actions.
“We do not agree that there is a legal basis for what Abta has done, but we are currently taking legal advice. It would not be appropriate to comment any further at this stage.”
Baldwins, based in Tunbridge Wells, is a long-established former family-owned firm with 10 agencies in Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tenterden, Uckfield, Westerham, Cranbrook, Haywards Heath, Tonbridge, Lewes and, the most recently opened, Grantham.
The move by Abta comes 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.
Two associates of Mason, Dylan and Antrobus – Christopher Hatfield and Dan Shaw – resigned as directors of Baldwins Travel last November following the sentencing hearing.
Hatfield and Shaw had been appointed directors of Baldwins when it was acquired by Inc & Co in September 2021. Shaw subsequently left in May 2022 but returned in February last year before resigning in November.