Serial fraudster behind bogus travel company

The Insolvency Service has successfully closed down a fake travel company run by a man with several different identities and multiple fraud convictions behind him.

The Insolvency Service now want to contact any businesses or individuals who might be owed money by Zulu Travel Services Ltd operating from addresses in Birkenhead, Chester, Manchester and London and run by “Dr Darren Anderson” who was listed as its sole director.  

Anderson is in fact a disqualified director and on this occasion the Insolvency Service demonstrated to a court that he had failed to keep company accounts or pay bills for services it had used.  

But the company also failed to cooperate with an investigation into its affairs, leaving investigators unable to find out the extent of the company’s business, including whether it had ever actually sold any holidays or flights to customers.  

The case appears to expose once again the weaknesses in the Companies House registration system, and that only detailed investigations can come close to exposing and stopping criminals running businesses in plain sight.

The official receiver was appointed as liquidator by the court, and has taken over the company’s affairs to identify any assets it may have and make any possible returns to the travel firm’s creditors. 

David Usher, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:  “Zulu Travel Services was engaged in trading practices which totally disregarded business rules and regulations. It left other businesses out of pocket after using their services and misled members of the public, who could have bought holidays that they believed were ATOL-protected.  

“We are pleased this company has now been removed to protect the public and advise those who might be owed any money by the company to contact the official receiver.”

The company claimed to sell flights, hotels and holidays through its website, which displayed both Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and Air Travel Organisation Licensing (ATOL) protection logos – signs that the company offered travel protection for its customers.  

But the company had not been eligible for ABTA membership, and in March 2023 the travel industry association of travel agents, which provides a level of consumer protection, requested that the business cease using their logo.   

Zulu Travel Services also continued to use the ATOL-protected logo on its website and emails, despite there being no evidence that it had an ATOL licence. 

The travel agency also booked holiday accommodation on a number of occasions in which Anderson had stayed as a guest, and then failed to pay the bills.    

“Prestland-Windsor” in 2014 (GMP)

But in April 2021 the man calling himself “Dr Anderson” had been banned from running a company for 15 years – the maximum length of disqualification – under his previous name of Timothy Ahlbeck.

In 2021 Irish investigative newspaper the Sunday World reported how “Ahlbeck” had set up Zulu Manufacturing and Retail Trading Group (Europe), and filed a registration with the CRO, the Irish equivalent of Companies House. 

There was nothing to prevent him registering companies in Ireland, despite his UK ban, as the system relies on individuals informing authorities of their own disqualification in another country.

Their investigations also revealed that he had set up at least two companies in the US, Mucky Paws LLC in New Jersey, and M & Co Hair and Beauty USA in Arizona, California, Florida and Delaware.

Under the name Miles Prestland-Windsor he also received a suspended prison sentence, and a company director ban, after admitting dishonestly obtaining services, at Chester Crown Court in April 2014.

At that trial a judge told him he was a “miserable fantasist” and an “expert con merchant”.

He then changed his name again, this time to Timothy Ahlbeck and in 2019 he even ran for local elections in Devon. 

In so doing he tried and failed to enforce an injunction on news site DevonLive which sought to reveal his previous identity and his criminal history, notably that in 2011 he was also given two years in jail, after a conviction for fraud at Manchester Crown Court under his name Miles Prestland-Windsor.

The court recorder said: “You are clearly a menace to financial institutions. You may well have a Walter Mitty feature to your personality but you should not be allowed through the door of any institution that deals with money.

“You are a fraudster. Other people have to be protected from your wrongdoing.”

“Dr Timothy Ahlbeck” Instagram, 2020

It is understood he also goes by the names of Timothy Richard Skelding, Miles Prestland, and Darren Jones. 

However, in the current investigation “Anderson” failed to provide relevant documents to investigators, and they could not establish his true identity or discover if Anderson was the sole appointed director, or whether anyone else took part in the management of the business.   

Investigators found that the company had held a bank account between November and December 2022, but the account had no transactions.  

It had filed accounts with Companies House for October 2022 – October 2023 showing current assets of £1,307,400 and shareholder funds of £3,408,400, but investigators found no evidence to verify that these accounts were accurate.   

They discovered that Anderson had made three attempts to get an ATOL licence for the company, and had declared that he was not a disqualified director as part of the application.   

He had also claimed on the application that his assets included the house in Wolverhampton in which he was living at the time, although in fact he had been renting the property.  

Despite offering to cooperate with investigators, Anderson claimed he was then resident in the Netherlands, while he was actually living in Hathersage in the Peak District, where he was tracked down by an investigator.  

Investigators were unable to trace details of customers, discover if the company employed staff, or even had any trading premises, due to its failure to cooperate.  

The full scale, financial details and nature of Zulu Travel Services Ltd’s business, and the amount of loss incurred by its customers and suppliers remains unknown.  

The winding-up order was made by District Judge Matharu in the High Court, Business and Property Courts in Manchester on 5 June 2024, after the company declined to file any evidence in opposition to the order.

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