The High Court hearing of a petition to wind up Baldwins Travel, filed by director Nick Marks in May and due on Wednesday of last week, was postponed and is now scheduled for July.
The reason is not clear and Marks was not available for comment, but separate Companies House and High Court filings suggest significant recent developments.
A Companies House document in Baldwins’ name filed days before the scheduled hearing on June 25 noted termination of Marks’ appointment as director on June 19. This seems unlikely to have been filed by Marks as he sought to wind up the company as sole director, making the High Court unlikely to hear the petition if no longer in the role.
Separately, a High Court application to have Baldwins placed in administration was filed on June 24 by a company registered in Delaware at the same address as Worldwide Travel Holdings (WTH), the registered owner of Baldwins.
Travel Weekly has previously reported that Abta terminated Baldwins’ membership on April 1, Iata suspended its accreditation on April 28 and the Advantage Travel Partnership confirmed Baldwins was no longer a member in May.
Yet the Baldwins business remains technically in existence despite investment firm Westwood Capital Finance sending in receivers on May 7 following the company’s default on loans secured against the freehold of its head office in Tunbridge Wells and buildings in Tonbridge and Tenterden. The receivers have made clear their role is “to manage and sell” the properties.
The High Court judge who, last October, sentenced former Baldwins Travel director Jack Mason and associates David Antrobus and Scott Dylan to 22 months in prison for breaches of freezing orders obtained by Barclays Bank against the sale or transfer of assets, including Baldwins, beyond UK law was satisfied that Dylan, Antrobus and Mason retained control of the business through WTH despite claiming to have sold their assets.
Barclays had filed a High Court claim for £13.7 million against Dylan, Antrobus, Mason and others in November 2021, and obtained the freezing orders in pursuit of this. These proceedings have yet to be heard, but Barclays has now filed petitions for bankruptcy against Mason, Antrobus and Dylan.
Baldwins was owned by the Marks family up to September 2021, when it was acquired by Inc Travel Group, part of a web of companies run by Mason, Dylan and Antrobus, with Nick Marks remaining a director.
