Karl Azzopardi. Photos: Matthew Mirabelli

In the last week of operations before going bankrupt, Fantasy Tours accepted €31,000 in payments for holidays that its director Karl Azzopardi could not deliver, a police inspector said yesterday.

The travel company, which went bankrupt in August last year, cancelled hundreds of paid-up trips, with the police receiving a total of 272 reports claiming nearly €407,000 in all.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla said Mr Azzopardi’s explanation was that he clung to the hope there would be a sudden improvement in business and he would manage to rescue his firm.

Mr Azzopardi was one of those who would never admit 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 Mellieħa, who is pleading not guilty to defrauding several Fantasy Tours clients and misappropriating their funds.

He clung to hope there would be improvement in business

Mr Abdilla said the investigation started when clients received SMS messages from Fantasy Tours telling them that the company could not honour its commitments and their travel booking had been cancelled.

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

He struggled to keep the company afloat even though he injected his own money into it. When the situation got out of hand, he had no choice but to wind up the business.

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

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

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

He had given the police documentation showing the many flights with empty seats and passenger numbers ranging from a mere 64 to 113.

Mr Abdilla said Mr Azzo-pardi spoke to him about talks he had with Britannia Tours and SMS Mondial to take over the business but this did not materialise. Investigations revealed that these talks were in the very early stages.

Lawyer Franco Debono, who is representing the clients, asked the inspector to elaborate on the explanation given by Mr Azzopardi as to why he continued to accept bookings until the very last day, even though he knew he could not honour the commitments.

Mr Abdilla replied that Mr Azzopardi refused to admit his business was failing as it had become “his life”.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Anthony Vella said there was enough prima facie evidence for a bill of indictment to be issued against Mr Azzopardi. The case was put off to December.

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