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Travel company directors disqualified for misrepresentation over payment protection (8 August 2016)

Date: 08/08/2016
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Travel company directors disqualified for misrepresentation over payment protection

The directors of a travel company based in Chippenham in Wiltshire have been disqualified, after misleading customers into believing that their holiday payments were protected un the Package Travel Regulations 1992.

Adrian Charles Hillier and his daughter Carly-Jo Hillier – directors of Hatts Quality Travel Ltd – have been disqualified from acting as directors for ten and eight years, respectively, for causing or allowing the company to make false representations through its advertising literature to its customers that their payments for holidays were suitably protected, when no such protection existed.

Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, Adrian Hillier and Carly-Jo Hillier entered into disqualification undertakings, preventing them from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for the duration of the relevant undertaking.

Hatts Quality Travel Ltd was incorporated on 29 March 2000 – and traded from The Coach House, West End, Foxham in Chippenham, Wiltshire as a provider of holidays and coach trips.

Hatts Quality Travel Ltd was an organiser of pre-arranged coach tour packages – for periods of 24 hours or longer – for which the Package Travel, Package Holiday and Package Tours Regulations 1992 require ATOL or ABTA protection to be held to protect customer payments.

The company entered Administration on 25 July 2015, with liabilities to creditors of £196,787 – of which £176,217 was owed to 379 customers for holidays paid for, but not provided.

Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations, Midlands & West at the Insolvency Service, Sue MacLeod, said:

“This is a serious case in which the directors clearly breached the trust of their customers.

“There is no place in the business community for such behaviour – and the Insolvency Service and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills will take firm action to protect the public.”

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Duncan Lewis business crime solicitors can advise at any stage of a charge or investigation into business crimes, including charges relating to misrepresentation, fraud, false accounting, embezzlement, breaches of disqualification, tax and VAT evasion, and white collar crime.

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For expert legal advice on business offences, call Duncan Lewis business crime solicitors on 0333 772 0409.


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