WARNING! SAL Travel / www.thailandbeachholidays.co.uk

stu1169

We had booked to travel to Thailand with SAL Travel this week with SAL Travel also trading as thailandbeachholidays.co.uk. The travel agent has taken all our money & not booked anything. He will not answer the phone.

The master franchisee Global Travel Group is now dealing with the mess he (Colin Loadman) has left.

It would appear that he has disappeared with a lot of money from unsuspecting travellers like ourselves, and significant numbers of people are affected. His websites are still operating and Global Travel are trying to take them down.

Global Travel stopped him from trading as a franchisee to them last week. This man has taken money from people who have saved up all year for a beautiful holiday and left them and us with nothing.

Our family is absolutely devastated and we have no way of re-booking in the near future because he has taken every penny we had. We have also lost all the money we had paid for independent accomodation, kennel costs, etc.

How can someone sleep at night after doing this? I know I can't through what he has done.

Moonchild

Stu,

It sounds like a horrendous thing, but I think a clear strategy will help you a) retrieve your money (at least the holiday costs) and b) your holiday

It sounds like they / he would have been trading under Global Travel Groups ATOL when you booked, which means you are protected.

Can you advise when you are due to travel?
How did you pay?
What / when was the last response you got from him?
What have Global Travel said?
You may wish to contemplate reporting him (by phone) to the CAA as he cannot advertise having ATOL cover if he does not, and the CAA will take (i'd hope) all immediate legal means to close the site down if in fact his ATOL has been withdrawn by Global Travel.

stu1169

Hi Moonchild, thanks for your reply...

In response to your questions:-

Can you advise when you are due to travel?

We were due to fly tomorrow (Thursday)

How did you pay?

We paid by two credit cards and the large balance by Bank Transfer direct into his bank account. He did not take the payment off the credit cards until the beginning of August, after the seats he had originally reserved had been cancelled and there was no further availability on the flight he had promised us!

We are probably covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act but I believe we shoudl only envoke this as a last resort

It seems pretty clear he took the money knowing he could not book any further flights for us.

What / when was the last response you got from him?

He stopped answering the phone two weeks ago, although it still rings and diverts to his mobile phone. I have called him over 40 times last week and left numerous messages. I have also sent him several e-mails.

My guess is he still has his phone on to take bookings from unsuspecting new customers.

What have Global Travel said?

They stated that they stopped him booking on their behalf last Tuesday the 11th of August. They were appearing to be helpful on Monday but on Tuesday told me that there were a lot of people who Colin Loadman had done this to, and therefore it was now in the hands of their internal solicitor. They advised me that they were sorry but we would not be going on holiday, and that I would have to wait for a letter from their solicitor.

You may wish to contemplate reporting him (by phone) to the CAA as he cannot advertise having ATOL cover if he does not, and the CAA will take (i'd hope) all immediate legal means to close the site down if in fact his ATOL has been withdrawn by Global Travel.

I spoke to the CAA and they were not really interested in pursuing anything. They said they would only get involved if Global Travel went bust. It is apparently difficult for them to take action against anyone like this and that it was really up to Global Travel to sort this out.
I have also contacted the police and they are investigating.
Trading Standards said that there was not much that they could do as their enforcement team really needs to see a consistent pattern of trading over a period of time which would lead them to be able to take action!
I cannot believe that in the UK today, it is so difficult to get the powers that be to take action against someone who clearly appears to be deliberately defrauding a significant number of members of the public!
We have also incureed significant consequential losses and as we have no money to re-book immediately by the time we do it will be high season in Thailand and the flights and hotels will cost significantly more.
I have also unfortunately found another report from BBC Watchdog in April 2006 where Colin Loadman was interviewed as Sales Manager for Moresand Holidays and a similar thing appears to have happened where a family did not receive tickets for a holiday to Florida! At that time the company was thrown out of ABTA.
It appears shortly after he started SAL Travel saltravel.co.uk and thailandbeachholidays.co.uk.
Shame we couldn't find all of this before we booked with him this time!
Hopefully he will never be able to operate as a travel agent again.
Regards
Stuart

Moonchild

Hi Stu, I'd written a big response, but then was dumped out of this site and the post was lost.

Basically, was saying how sorry to hear what had happened, and I hope you get your holiday in the end. You will get your money back, but it's stressful in the meantime.

It's not the CAA (as they said they help if the company go bust) you need to chase, but Global Travel. They took this chap on as one of their franchisee, covered him under their ATOL, and now have to deal with the consequences of him seemingly defrauding customers. I also wonder if the money paid has gone to him or to Global Travel (as his merchant banking facilities will be through them), so potentially they have your money (that's not definite as I don't know 100% how they work).

Alan_Bowen

Just to endorse what Moonchild has said. The CAA will have no interest since there has been no ATOL failure, it is Global who are responsible for giving you your money back. They are supposed to operate a trust account into which all customers money is placed until the holiday is over. They have insurance against fraud, so even if they haven't got your money, it won't cost them anything to give it back to you.

I see he asked for a bank transfer for some of the payment, that is usually a sign that something is wrong. It means the banks won't chase you if you run away with the money since they don't have to give it back to the customer, unlike credit card payments. If you ever get asked for bank transfers, run a mile. In this case, keep pestering Global until they sort you out.

stu1169

Many thanks Moonbeam & Alan Bowen for your replies.

We will keep on the case of Global Travel to get a response.

Thank you for all your help.

Regards

Stuart

stu1169

Just spoken to Global Travel Group Plc. They predictably have told us to claim on the credit cards as it is quicker.

They were trying to tell me that they are not liable because he was working independently and it isn't really a franchise!

They are supposed to be sending me a letter which I am now going to have to wait for to see what they are really saying in it.

Regards

Stuart

LHolland

We have also been scammed by Loadman and Global Travel have a lot to answer for. Difference is - am national journalist. I intend to write a story about this fiasco nay fraud and would like to make contact with all who have been affected. Can give anonymity if required but I will certainly be detailing my own story. This is a scandal.

stu1169 wrote: »

We had booked to travel to Thailand with SAL Travel this week with SAL Travel also trading as thailandbeachholidays.co.uk. The travel agent has taken all our money & not booked anything. He will not answer the phone.

The master franchisee Global Travel Group is now dealing with the mess he (Colin Loadman) has left.

It would appear that he has disappeared with a lot of money from unsuspecting travellers like ourselves, and significant numbers of people are affected. His websites are still operating and Global Travel are trying to take them down.

Global Travel stopped him from trading as a franchisee to them last week. This man has taken money from people who have saved up all year for a beautiful holiday and left them and us with nothing.

Our family is absolutely devastated and we have no way of re-booking in the near future because he has taken every penny we had. We have also lost all the money we had paid for independent accomodation, kennel costs, etc.

How can someone sleep at night after doing this? I know I can't through what he has done.

kelwalker

My wife and I booked out Thailand holiday with Colin Loadman and paid in advance to secure our booking/deal. We had used Thailand Beach Holidays twice before, so no suspicions raised.
I'll try Global and my credit card company to see if we can get any money back and will post progress on this forum in order to try and help other victims.
We'd certainly be willing to forego any anonymity to get this fraud exposed and bring Loadman to justice.
Regards
Kel

stu1169

I was asked not to post anything further here by Global Travel in the 3rd week of August as they told me that they were sorting my issue out.

Suffice to say they have not refunded all of the money that was paid to Colin Loadman / SAL Travel and I have still been left with absolutely no holiday and I have not received a full refund.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who has experienced problems.

I will take my case as far as I need to in order to get this matter put right, and if anyone else would like to contact me, please feel free to message me on here.

GIRLPOWER_2

So sorry to hear about this. Have you heard anything more?