Police investigate alleged fraud at failed Varsity Express
 

From ATI News:

Police investigate alleged fraud at failed Varsity Express
Alan Dron, London (15Mar10, 18:27 GMT, 336 words)


Police are looking into the circumstances surrounding short-lived UK regional operator Varsity Express, whose services on the Oxford-Edinburgh route ceased after just a week.
Thames Valley Police, which covers the Oxford area, says that complaints have been received about the carrier and that the force's economic crimes unit is looking into allegations of fraud. Varsity Express started services at the beginning of the month but ceased on 8 March.

FLYBE 37

Bet he does not have many friends left now especially in the Aviation World.

Nice to see th Police are on to Him

Evidence of insanity
 

Damn Flybe37 you had a few of us fooled then...it might have just been the kind of evidence that shows MH is completely delusional. :}

One thing is for sure, the police are not going to be deluded or so easily fooled by his antics... :ok:

Famous on Wikipedia:

Martin Halstead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For Links Air though that is one very nice clean Jetstream

The engine rigging looks pretty good as well.

Wikpedia
 

Have you noticed the common theme throughout this guy's life?

A levels - not completed
OAA Course - not completed
Alpha 1 - failed
Blue Islands - fired
VE - bogus.


beggars belief why anyone would want to believe that investors had approached him with regards to making a return on their money. He doesnt even have any commercial experience! :ugh:

Notice how the flight is almost EMPTY? got off to a great start, seems like the only pax on there were freebies.

An illustrious aviation career !!!

and as the photo proves - he did finish one course - the VA cabin crew course !

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...24355_2571.jpg


http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...113807_984.jpg


http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._8088182_n.jpg


http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-..._4775_9220.jpg


http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-..._4707_4213.jpg

One or two of you have suggested outing people not actually connected with VE. That is not acceptable neither is naming names. This is a serious matter and PPRuNe intends to keep it that way. Some posts have already been deleted.

Keep strictly on topic please.

The latest quote from Mr Halstead (in the Oxford Mail):

Mr Halstead said: “I have certainly never acted fraudulently and I don’t think anyone within my company has.
“I have protected the interests of our passengers and am making sure they get their money back.
“It’s an incredibly unfortunate set of circumstances.
“I have tried to act as responsibly as possible so passengers’ money is not being used at all until flights have flown.
“The Will Gilligan thing is a bone of contention but I don’t think anyone’s acted illegally.
“He (Gilligan) was never a director of the company at all just an email address to keep me out of the public eye initially. It was never the intention for me to be the public face of the company because it would dent the credibility of the company off the back of Alpha One.
“There’s nothing illegal about using a pseudonym.
“I went along with it. I never saw it as an issue because Will Gilligan was never actually conducting any business for the company.”

Sometimes, things are beyond parody...

Silly man! He could have used Ronnie Kray or Katie Price or Wikky Peeder or even Walter Mitty. Why oh why does he talk to the press? He gets himself in even deeper. He will suffer the arrows of ill fortune shortly I shouldn't wonder!

Will someone please relieve Mr H of his shovel?

Correct. Ever wondered why no-one would return your phone calls, Mr H? Perhaps they didn't want to do business with you. Coming up with a pseudonym so that people WILL deal with you is - um - what's the word?

From Wiki... Misrepresentation is one of several vitiating factors which can affect the validity of a contract. A misrepresentation occurs when one party makes a false statement with the intention of inducing another party to contract. For an action to be successful, some criteria must be met in order to prove a misrepresentation. These include:

1. A false statement of fact has been made,
2. The statement was directed at the suing party and
3. The statement had acted to induce the suing party to contract.

Looking at the criteria above in terms of LinksAir...

1. According to the Times, MH "boasted of a “consortium” of wealthy investors in the airline who never existed".
2. LinksAir would have been told that VE had money, otherwise no self-respecting operator would have operated at all;
3. See point 2.

Letsby Avenue?

TA

How long before he claims he has Asbergers and can't help it ?

ATOLS
 

Thanks for that info re exclusions, Kirbymoorside. It does not appear that Varsity Express paid Links Air, but immaterial anyway. Without an ATOL Bond being in place, pax will, I think, just have to join the line of V.A. 's Creditors. They can usually get a refund on a credit card payment, if goods not supplied, but not always on a Debit card. When ATOLs were being set up, we had discussions with the CAA about airline bonding. It was considered unworkable because the CAA did not have powers to force foreign carriers to be bonded, and thus forcing UK ones would put them at a disadvantage. Since then the picture has changed beyond their dreams, with a huge percentage of air tickets no longer paid for over an agency counter in exchange for a paper ticket, but sold directly by carriers on line and paid for in return for an email. Although it has been an unwritten law that other carriers pick up the pieces if a rival goes under, these days most of them will not fly stranded pax free, so can finish up paying much higher price.

Looking at one or two photo's from his earlier endeavours, it appears MH is wearing an expensive looking watch in one pic - maybe he could sell this to help re-imburse the people shafted by this affair ?!?.....or is that just wishful thinking given his stated desire to pay back all affected ?! lol

Oh, as an aside....and i may have mis-read......he was an F/O with Blue Islands for a while ?? but the postings above suggest he didn't complete the OAA course ?? just wondering how that came about if true ?? again, probably me mis-reading so apologies if so

F/O

The START-UP WE CAN ALL BELIEVE IN
 

With all these new pilots looking for work but having to pay for TR on top of basic, and so many disgruntled experienced flight and cabin crew around, is the time right to launch - - PPRUNE AIR ???? - "The START-UP WE CAN ALL BELIEVE IN"

We have a pool of people on PPRUNE with terrific knowledge and experience in all departments. We all know how an airline SHOULD be run, don't we? I envision a John Lewis of the skies, sharing all profits with staff, but charging our investors for the privilege of putting their money into PPRNE AIR. Are there any "Baby Branson" investors out there who would like to come for an interview at The Gherkin? (CASH investors only, please)

I remember watching a tv program about this guy and Alpha One. The tv crew followed him around whilst he visited banks and whilst he was waiting for the investment to arrive in his account. As soon as it did, he went and immediately bought a very expensive watch. He had quite a bit of confidence that the business would take off. Makes you wonder if it was that expensive watch from the old days ......

Reminds me of that bloke who crashed into the tree in Scotland, and could not refrain from talking to the press repeatedly.

Idiot.

As I was just about to say!! Strangely enough.

There are many pre-requisites to starting up an airline. The first is having sufficient cash IN THE BANK, a proven track record, the necessary approvals and an aircraft that fits the purpose EXACTLY - not a noisy unsustainable machine that, after the novelty has worn off, no-one wants to fly in again. I would not like to have an operation from Oxford anyway, even if I did live there - which I do not!

Then, of course there is the ground ops and an AOC. Using someone else's AOC is fraught with problems and in this case it allowed for the unscrupulous to mis-use it and put the operation in question. Type ratings can be bonded but will be a lump to come out that big sum from IN THE BANK. Organisation, organisation, organisation is the key. The main key, however, is honesty with integrity.

ALL, and I do mean ALL, this was missing in this operation and should never have been allowed off the ground. If I had been owner of the aircraft I would have verified the veracity of Halstead's proposal and his 'investors.' It was blatantly clear it was a terrible example of misrepresentation that I have ever seen in all my years in the industry. There are many questions to be asked and many to be answered. Those TR's are a very big issue and the main question is into whose pockets did £60k(?) go?

The biggest warning of all is that someone with a track record like Halstead's should have been laughed at all the way to the asylum.

Since the number of booked passengers appears to be virtually zero, that is not going to cost him very much.

As more reassuring statement would be:
“I have protected the interests of our flight crew and am making sure they get their money back."