Nine year ban for holiday club boss

THE boss of three Lancashire holiday companies, wound up in the public interest by the Insolvency Service, has been disqualified as a director for nine years.

David James Wild, 55, ran three connected holiday club companies in Morecombe and Carnforth which aggressively promoted memberships to the public that locked customers in to deals and provided only very limited access to resorts.

Mr Wild, 55, was the director of APD Leisure and Marketing, APD Leisure Group and APD Leisure and Marketing Group Europe.

The Insolvency Service said the businesses used high pressure sales techniques to market holiday club memberships and claimed to provide access to unused weeks at timeshare resorts but, when customers tried to book holidays, they were told they were unable to do so.

Following the disqualification in January this year, the High Court gave Mr Wild time to appeal which has now elapsed. The disqualification order prevents Mr Wild from acting as a director of a limited company without the permission of the court, until January 2022.

Jointly the companies took in more than £500,000 overall from of customers, leading to complaints from 234 people who expressed dissatisfaction with the service provided.

In the case of APD Leisure and Marketing the court also found that the company had used the name and logos of an unconnected company to mislead customers to think it was bigger and better- connected than it was.

Commenting on the disqualifications, Ken Beasley, Official Receiver at the Insolvency Service’s public interest unit, said: “Mr Wild was responsible for the unacceptable trading practices of the APD companies.

“Many customers were pressurised into paying for holiday club memberships and later found they were unable to book the holidays they had signed up for.

“This nine-year disqualification sends a strong message that The Insolvency Service will put a stop to businesses and individuals who engage in the unfair treatment of customers and creditors.”

 APD Leisure and Marketing was wound-up in March 2010. There were no assets and an estimated deficiency to creditors of £436,612.

Its sister companies APD Leisure Group and APD Leisure amd Marketing Group Europe were both wound-up in May 2010. Both had no assets, but creditors were owed £118,176 and £100,000 respectively.