Firm’s failure strands couple

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 6

Firm’s failure strands couple

From KEN COATES in. London A Kawerau couple, Mr Mark Huston and his wife, i Jane, are stranded in London! with little money because of, the failure of STS Travel to! produce valid air tickets fori which they paid the compa-1 ny a total of $1420. i The police have seized the; records from the firm’s kiosk in the Shepherd’s Bush Green underground station, but company, representatives have disappeared. The Hustons had plannedto travel on a Eurail pass to Athens and fly on Thai Airways via Singapore to Sydney, thence by Air New Zealand or Qantas to Auckland. They had hoped to' be back in New Zealand by September 1 so that. MrsHuston could take up at teaching job in Kawerau, toj which .she is bonded, on. September 8. Mr Huston, a; purchasing officer, also has' a iob to go to. •. Mr Huston is 27 and his wife 25. .The couple spent, most of yesterday telling j i their story to the Shepherd’s Bush police, who will hand, | the case ' to Scotland; Yard’s fraud squad. ’ . -■ ' . i | While they were being in-;

terviewed, about 100 callers | making-complaints about the! firm telephoned the police,, they said. j It is believed the sum of: money involved in uncon-1 firmed bookings could be. about $1.2 million. j The New Zealand couple! became suspicious after! company representatives, one of whom they believe to be a New Zealander, repeatedly failed to produce evidence of confirmed airline! bookings from Athens to! New Zealand, valid tickets, or| give a refund. ■ I They had been bn a working holiday in Britain for almost three years and were living at Basingstoke, Hampshire. . They paid over the $1420 on July 12. to a woman clerk at the company on the as-; surance that their cheque! would not be lodged until | the flights from Athens and., Sydney were confirmed. i, 'Repeated assurances were! given that the air tickets! had been sent by registered! mail, but they, did not; arrive. -j 1 After several visits to STS I -Travel they were offered vouchers but knowing that; lotherIother New Zealanders and! Australians had accepted;

vouchers which were not being honoured in Athens, thev refused.

“We demanded tickets or a full refund,”, said Mr Huston.

The manager, who said he! was Roger Montgomery,! from Christchurch told the! couple to come back later! because he could nqt find the chequebook. Three other couples were demanding refunds .and the police were called. An assurance was given by the manager that there were funds in the firm’s bank to meet a refund cheque.

The cheque handed over had only one signature instead of two, and it was not honoured by the bank., Mr Huston said he had established that no valid reservation for them' had ever been made with Thai Airways and certainly no, money had been paid to the! airline for tickets. I He had since found outj that the travel firm had a big overdraft with Barclays IBank, .and a $9600 outstanding telephone account. I A staff member, Miss Virginia Fitzpatrick, whom he (believed to be a director,! (left two weeks ago “on holiiday.” The office had shut,

and there was no sign of any of the six people be- ! lieved to have been associated with it. The Hustons have a deadline for returning to New (Zealand and this means they I cannot take' advantage of (their Eurail pass, costing ($4BO to Athens. • i “We will have to decide whether to try to raise the 'money from friends in New Zealand, or take a fly-now-and-pay-later scheme for which 18 per cent interest is charged,” said Mr Huston.

“At least we are better off than people in Athens or Kuala Lumpur without money or tickets.” The couple say they want other New Zealanders to know how careful they need to be when making travel arrangements. They say STS Travel sold so-called student travel cards , for $9.60 each which were virtually worthless. ! “The trouble is that it is so easy for companies to set themselves up over here.” They said they read the; firm’s advertisement in (“New Zealand News U.K.” ] and assumed that as it appeared there, the company iwas reputable.