A court heard today how Fantasy Tours director Karl Azzopardi accepted a total of 31 bookings, with deposits, part-payments or full payments totalling some €31,000 in the last week before he ceased operations in August last year.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla said Mr Azzopardi's explanation was that he continued hoping that there would be a sudden improvement in business and he would manage to rescue his firm.

He said he was one of those businessmen who would never admit that their business was going under and would keep hoping till the very end that a miracle would happen.

Inspector Abdilla was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Azzopardi, 44, from Santa Maria Estate in Mellieha, who is pleading not guilty to defrauding several Fantasy Tours clients and misappropriating their funds.

Mr Azzopardi, who told the court he was unemployed, told Inspector Abdilla that his business began running into financial difficulties since 2012, particularly when the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority issued a warning on Fantasy Tours, which also operated under the company name Golden Travel Club Limited.

Mr Abdilla told the court that the police received a total of 272 reports on this case - 268 of them filed at police stations and four at the police depot. The clients claims totalled €406,985.81, he said.

Mr Azzopardi told investigators that he tried hard to keep the company afloat but he faced financial difficulties. He had also injected his own personal money into the company but when the situation got out of hand, he had no choice but to wind up the business.

He informed clients of this and that the company could not honour its obligations.

The inspector said Mr Azzopardi did not know the extent of the financial difficulties but said it was roughly €130,000, mostly bookings for flights and packages.

He said the biggest blow came in June last year when between June 21 and October 4, he had 15 back-to-back tours and had chartered a plane a week. The capacity of each flight was 141 people and he was paying €12,700 each flight.

To break even, he needed to sell 115 seats per flight but he did not manage to get so many bookings and most of the time he operated at a loss.

He gave police documentation showing that in that he sent flights with many empty seats, with only 84, 82, 113, 64, 72 and 69 passengers.

Talks with Brittannia Tours and SMS Mondial Travel to take over the business had not materialised, he said.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Anthony Vella said there was enough evidence for Mr Azzopardi to be indicted. The case was put off to December.

Lawyer Kris Borg appeared for Mr Azzopardi while lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared parte civile for the clients.

 

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