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There was a 4-part series of Channel 4 documentaries, one included Mr. Halstead, (aired Sept. 2005) called 'Live Now, Pay Later'. Unfortunately I've not been able to find a video of the documentary. From memory, it was certainly very eye-opening as to the then attitude of the individual.
Using the figures and information from the article and presuming he had no other investment what so ever. He took in over £50,000 from those 4 pilots (but at £15,000 per person that makes £60,000, surely?) and £8,200 in ticket receipts, all of which presumably went into his personal bank account as he had “not set up a company bank account”. He paid only £30,000 to LinksAir and the remainder (between £28,200 – £38,200) disappeared in “operating costs”, in one week, or since the debut on 20th January 2010 (47 days). It also seems that Mr. Halstead is trying to apportion the blame with Mr. Lawrence who was on paper only a shareholder and not a director. This is of course if we believe the article to be correct. Be very interesting to see what the authorities do, but as PM says I wouldn’t be surprised if he escapes scot free. |
I had read the flyertalk thread; the article for the Times puts him a wholly different light...
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Re Heat, dont know what you have been smoking... If I understand you correctly it is ok in the US to:
-Claim to be a non excistent director -Lie about money being available (for 2 years operation...) -Lie to who ever rents you an airplane about payments -STEAL money from wannabee pilots.. If this is your idea of pulling a country out of recession....:confused: |
I dont understand why the threads about Varsity Express that warned about this venture were pulled all the time... Can one of the moderators enlighten us? I feel that PPRuNe is THE forum to warn people against these operations that have IMPOSSIBLE written all over them There were posts warning about paying £15k to VE. Can't help but think if the posts weren't pulled those 4 wouldn't have been sucked in by the "scheme". I'm just off to Jetblast to see if I should invest my life savings in Icelandic Banks... |
Quite often on this site we see criticism of journalists (often totally justified, I must admit!) but on this occasion surely we should say well done to the Sunday Times whose journalist has managed to prise the facts out of Mr Halstead, confirming the suspicions many of us had.
It's a fair question too, as to why so many previous thread were pulled (although I do recall seeing some comments which were potentially actionable as they could not be substantiated). This quote (from another site) should have been enough to give anybody pause : "What were the circumstances which lead to the creation of Varsity Express? I had just been made redundant [in Autumn 2009], when I received a call from a group of property owners who were looking to invest in an airline. They asked me if I was willing to help them." Now confirmed by Mr Halstead as a total lie, who on earth would have believed it in the first place? Wouldn't you have loved to have read the business plan? :) As I recall, the Thames Valley Police HQ is just down the road from the airport... |
Baby Branson? Apprentice Del Boy more like!
Are new pilots so desperate to get a job that they would take a risk such as this without getting cast iron guarantees? |
No RYR - I had read a different new article elsewhere and not the Times article. Forget what I posted earlier...!
The chap is a chancer and a lunatic it would appear. He forgot or never heard the Warren Buffet rule number 1 of management: Ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear on the front page of their local paper the next day, to be read by their spouses, children and friends. |
Given the article I read today, some would suggest perhaps that Gillig - I mean Halstead - should be given a one-way ticket himself...:=
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I assume that the CAA who, either in economic regulator mode or in safety regulator mode, or both, have the responsibility for preventing this kind of thing, adopted their usual posture that it's nothing to do with them?
They have presumably found some miniscule technicality that lets them off the hook of regulatory failure, once again? The CAA is required by the law under which they operate to ensure that people setting up quasi/pseudo-airlines with no finance or knowledge do not hire AOC holders to fly for them, while hauling in money from advance sales with no prospect of the services being delivered before bankruptcy intervenes. Even if the operation is well-funded and kosher (few are) the hirer - the pseudo-airline - is required to show the level of knowledge, expertise and resources needed to exercise effective safety oversight of the AOC holder, ie to audit every technical aspect of the operation very thoroughly indeed and keep on doing so.. That the CAA did nothing effective, it appears, is no surprise. They are focussed solely on collecting extortionate fees for issuing approvals/licences/whatevers on behalf of EASA, and then delaying things as long as possible while incompetent Inspectors/Surveyors/Whatevers display their amost total ignorance of the rules they seek to impose. I have the impression that many end up there because they are unemployable in the industry. The rule of thumb used to be that anyone starting an airline, or a quasi-airline, pseudo-airline, call it what you will, had to show the CAA real, in-the-bank, unencumbered working capital of 6 months worth of running costs, fixed, semi-fixed and variable, for the planned operation, regardless of sales income. That was a pretty accurate forecast of the minimum negative cash flow of a new start-up, regardless of the entrepreneur's fantasies about income expressed in the technicolour wonderland of MBA-style spreadsheets. Proper working capital is a safety issue just as much as an economic one. As many have pointed out above, this delusional lunatic has form. He did the same in Jersey a few years back. Baby Branson needs to do time on a ramp cleaning aircraft and perhaps learning a thing or two. Were the CAA out, having a group hug in the subsidised restaurant on the day they let this one through, again? Or perhaps they felt the need for some team-building? No, silly me, it was tea-time and they had all gone home. |
Farcity Express
Varsity Express: Baby Branson’s bogus business - Times Online
How on earth did the airport management allow this to happen. It does not reflect well especially for any customers who've lost their money on tickets |
You will probably notice that this thread has grown somewhat quickly. You are right. We have decided to re-instate those threads and posts that were initially deleted for reasons that concerned us. This particular situation is not good news for aviation, and startup operations in particular. Somehow these get started without all the nous and vitals needed.
We are, therefore, allowing open house, subject to normal PPRuNe rules regarding taste, abuse, snide and personal attacks, so that our knowledgeable posters can comment sensibly and honestly on a story that should never have happened. Some irrelevant posts will, however, be removed. |
Hi Folks,
Just thought I'd share that I actually went for an interview for an FO job at VE back in January. As a very good friend of mine who also attended said..."It looked like sh*t, It certainly smelt like sh*t, so there was no need to taste it to find out it was sh*t!" I think I know of 1 of the guys who was sucker punched by this Imbecile and you cant help but feel sorry for him and the other 3. Both Halstead and Lawrence avoided eye contact when asked anything I wanted to know about Varsity. They were very edgy and wouldnt digress any information about the "investors" or company plans to get another larger 70 seat a/c. I knew I couldnt trust them within 2 mins so instantly alarm bells were ringing. People like Halstead and Lawrence make me sick. Im ashamed to have even sat in the same room. CIT |
"How on earth did the airport management allow this to happen''
What has this to do with the airport management?? It's a public airport !! An airport cannot do in depth checks on any one who want to operate into it. Edinburgh and Oxford got taken by this lot! |
Well Well
How unexpected I Notice Mr OXJOB is very Quiet at the moment after his songs of Praise for the New Airline and its Wonderful founder. I Would like to know if OXJOB is another ficticious name for Mr MH Makes you wonder. I Only hope The Police take this up as this is a total con and has taken Money from people who have paid out there Life Savings to Mr MH. I am glad to see all the removed threads re-instated so pepole can see how everbody was warned but no one in authority appeared to Listen. |
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Mr Halstead obtained significant press coverage in the run up to his latest business venture. Certain journo's have been made to look a bit silly. I suspect a few pencil's are now been sharpened to settle the score.
Anyone handing over £15k to this chap, without doing their own due diligence, is equally foolish. His reputation preceeds him in turboprop land, and the demise of this excuse of a business was widely anticipated both on pprune and in crew rooms across the land. |
Certain journo's have been made to look a bit silly. |
Journos are lied to all the time. Only the silly ones help lend authority to the lies by printing them, instead of checking them.
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Capot #94
Thank you Capot for the first really cogent and apposite posting. Watch this space!
Monom |
Checkboard, once upon a time, there were no journalists.
Back then there were only reporters, and really good reporters became correspondents. Back then, at the bottom of the trade, you had the cadet reporter, who trained, worked under, and was mentored by senior reporters. They learned the trade, the art if you will, on-the-job, from the senior paractitioners. When they got some experience, and if they had demonstrated some smarts, they became reporters and were sent out on their own. After many years, and if they produced some good stuff, they may have become senior reporters themselves, and if they had shown any significant flair or aptitude for any particular field, they may have become a specialist "subject area reporter", eg "Aviation Correspondent" or similar. At about the same time, if they were really good, they would have been noticed by the editor or chief editor, and may have been elevated to the level of "investigative reporter" and detailed to delve into some subject(s) of grave concern to the masses - or whatever. During most of this time (long gone) they would have taken the time to "check their facts" and most stories of any real significance were reasonably complete and well balanced when published The most important thing is, they took the time to prepare a story. The media took some professional pride in the quality of it's product, and at least did try to get it right. On occasion, they also willingly printed appologies and retractions when they got it wrong. Today, very little of that happens, none really meaningful anyway. Today, time has been removed from the equation. Today, everything is "now". This has had a number of bad effects. There is very little time to "gather the real facts", let alone "check those facts" . What is a fact anyway ? How do I tell the difference between fact and bull ? Deadline approaching - have to produce something - so go with what I've got. Thus, a "story" is printed. Is it a report ? - No, it is a "one off" story. Source ? Rarely stated, often unattributed, credibility - questionable. Subsequent events occur, days, perhaps weeks later, or other information comes to hand, that is/are related to the first story. What happens ? Is the first report "updated and expanded" or is it treated just as a "new stand alone" ? In most cases, the latter. In any case, I am sure you get the drift. The trouble is, today, everyone is a "journalist", just pumping out whatever they can in this "now" world, mostly superficial, with very little analysis or depth to it. To be blunt, no one "reports any more" they all "journalise". How often do journalists re-hash each other's material ? Even worse than that, how may times these days do you see journalists interviewing each other ? The net result is, most of what you see and read today in the media is, lets be kind, just garbage. That is why boards like this exist, so that people who are interested in some particular area of activity, can get "inside information" from "behind the scenes", something that "repoters" used to at least try and do, but journalists now rarely even make the pretence of trying to do. This whole thread, this whole sorry story, Mark-2, proves that the media does not do it's job any more. This story proves that the media will print garbage, and although obviously not intending to do so, does effectively assist, both bofore and during the fact, these scammers, by lending credibility to them. They themselves have become so desperate for copy that they themselves are easily succered by the self publicists etc et al. Therefore, MR MODERATOR(S), be mindull of all this, and do not delete "warning" posts, unless there is a really significant and valid reason to do so. |
Integrity takes a step forward...lets continue it.
Its heart warming to see that the Moderators of PPRuNe have had the integrity to re-instate this thread...if it had continued to be banned (along with the 3 other VE threads) then they could well of been accussed of supporting what now appears to be a pathetic crook. := Well done mods for application of common sense and some sorely sought after integrity: you shall rule :ok:
The lesson from VE is that the market has now got to the stage where it is absolutley accepted that guys who spend £80+ for basic training are now expected to pay for their career without the guarantee of any return - even to the point where a jumped up con artist living in a fantasy world can easily exploit these guys without an afterthought. And yes I heard all the stories about the interviews before this story broke and my advice was to steer very well clear of these guys as they were neither very good or even serious. Add MH's track record into the mix and you have a very obvious sting which when you are blinded by desparation for a pilot job after spending £80k is not actually that easy to see. Both MH and David Lawrence were almost laughing at the poor interviewees for their naivity - they couldn't believe their luck, like candy off a 5 year old. Scum. C'mon guys what happened? At this moment in time our industry is severly lacking integrity. The market for taking money off wannabees for type ratings and a few hundred hours is so rife that even the training schools now make it a mainstream offer for their student pilots....and VE is a resultant of that culture. And whilst it would be naive of me to say that such a lucrative revenue stream should be ignored by these operators/schools someone along the line has to make a stand. ;) I hope that the VE experience will reverberate around the chat forums, training schools, airports, newspapers and courtrooms so violently that students/low hour guys stop to question some of the less genuine offers and actually slow the momentum of this route further developing as the industry norm forever more. Highly unlikely that is, but if that is the long term result then MH may have just done the industry a favour....possibly the last chance he's ever going to get to bring anything positibe to our industry, albeit unintentionally. If you are one of those guys who were unfortunate enough to buy into what appeared to be, on the surface, a credible operator and want some advice or pointers/contacts then PM me and I will do what I can (possibly not very much but if I can help I will :)). To the others who were touched by the dark side - may the force be with you young Jedis. :ok: PP |
It shows you that some times (not always) that the things you read on here can be true. If this thread was never deleted in the first place maybe it would have made some of the pilots that paid 15k directly into his own account would have thought twice. I got shafted when I went to Unique Air and maybe if that thread wasnt deleted I would have wasted my time and money to be shafted as well. NOT HAPPY.
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newcomer - I'm not familiar with what happened with you and Unique Air - what I write should not be construed as having any bearing on your situation. However, there are things like libel laws and associated intimidating lawyers (my girlfriend terrifies me when she's in 'work' mode !) When something is no more than conjecture or rumour with perhaps nothing more than an anonymous email account as backing, it's a brave site admin who doesn't pull the occasional post.
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Like 850CIT, I also attended an interview with Halstead and Lawrence in the rented meeting room in the Gherkin. I had actually applied for the cabin crew role, since they were not advertising for FOs, and the first question that Halstead asked me was why I didn't apply to be a pilot. He told me that they were recruiting for FOs and asked if I was interested.
When he told me the deal - 24k salary, 15k TR and 2 year bond, I decided there and then that it was too risky to spend 15k on a J31 TR for an unproven company especially with Halstead's history. When I asked why the TR was so expensive, the answer given was that the extra cost was to cover SEP training! How much money can you spend teaching someone how to get out of an aircraft? Interestingly the cabin crew were not to get any SEP training since the role was to be purely service, with no safety responsibility. Anyway, I said that I would prefer to continue the interview for cabin crew, but I would like to consider taking on a flight deck role at a later date. I was in the room with them for about an hour, but I did most of the questioning. I asked Halstead some fairly probing questions about his 'Baby Branson' years and what he has been doing since. At the time, I felt that he was being quite open, but I would now certainly question how honest he actually was. It now seems that Halstead is a professional liar and his acting skills are very convincing. Lawrence was very obviously being more guarded throughout the interview and got very uneasy when I quizzed him about the investors. He revealed very little and seemed to have trouble making eye contact with me. Halstead interrupted and said something along the lines of "the investors want to remain anonymous, but if we told you who they were, you would have heard of them." Lawrence then gave Halstead a look which was quite clearly a shut your face look and that marked the end of our discussions about the investors. I had heard from a good source that Newcastle was likely to be their next route after a second Edinburgh flight was started, so I decided to ask about Newcastle to test their reaction. They both were very good at not revealing any surprise that I knew this, but they would not confirm or deny that my research was correct. During the interview I also admitted that I had started and had made further contributions to the PPRuNe thread on Varsity Express. Though I didn't say this to them at the time, I was quite proud of the fact that I believe I was the first to publicly reveal that Halstead was behind VE. He seemed to appreciate my honesty and was impressed by my research, but Lawrence looked highly irritated. Maybe that was just Halstead's good acting again. I promised that I would not be posting anything further on PPRuNe, but in light of recent revelations, I have decided to break my silence. Anyway, a couple of weeks later I got an email from 'Gilligan' (I now understand why I had so much trouble finding out his history!). It said that though they felt I interviewed "exceptionally well" for the cabin crew role, they felt that I would be better suited to a flight deck role. He wanted me to keep in touch and consider returning to interview for a flight deck position in the "near future". He was obviously desperate to get my money into his personal bank account! Needless to say, I wasn't rushing to get back for that interview, though I was in Oxford from last weekend and I nearly booked a flight with Varsity Express on Monday morning. I'm glad I didn't because a few hours later they went bust and the following day I got a job offer from a reputable and well established operator. |
I have the following from the public database at Companies House, which shows what he was up to since the Alpha One venture (address redacted for obvious reasons. Clearly he took the Baby Branson to heart and started up a music shop, which also went nowhere. How sad.
Law on obtaining financial advantage by deception: Deception offences - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Name: MR MARTIN RICHARD ALEXANDER HALSTEAD Nationality: BRITISH Date of Birth: 18/05/1986 Address:xxxx Current Appointments 07114817 VARSITY AIR SERVICES LTD Director 02/01/2010 Registered Office: OXFORD AIRPORT LANGFORD LANE, OXFORD, OXFORDSHIRE OX5 1RA Appointments at time of Dissolution 05399837 ALPHA1 AIR SERVICES LIMITED Director 20/03/2005 05/12/2006 05798059 DELICIOUS MUSIC REPUBLIC LIMITED Director 27/04/2006 11/08/2009 |
He may also have had some involvement in a Scottish Internet Television venture.
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The purpose of boards like this appears to be to rehash what's already printed in the media - inside information? I think not. Especially with threads getting deleted. It's only thanks to the Sunday Times that we're having this Monday-morning quarterback discussion. :rolleyes:
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A quick check shows that every thread started by GobonaStick does indeed begin that way. Perhaps you're right! :rolleyes:
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The way it is
In line with a few other posters, the fact that some individuals were duped into paying 'up-front' fees for TR, is unfortunately down to them. Others smelt it for what it was - a hair brained fantasy, and walked away. Well done to them. This whole arena in aviation is, like our great banking institutions, a disaster waiting to happen. Passengers rushing like lemmings to pay fares 6 months up front, fares that barely cover op costs, to on line credit card companies, who profit, propping up severly flawed and financially damaged airline companies. Poor sods, who 'only want to fly' paying their companies for the privelege to work for them. The 'authorities':\ sitting back, washing their hands of any responsibilty, and picking up what pieces (sometimes), are left, once the s*** has hit the fan. All through the threads in these forums are the concerns - safety, SOPS, bust outfits, crews left without jobs, passengers left in hell holes with kids etc etc. I do not agree with the BA strike situation, but maybe, just maybe, they are the last stand:eek::eek:
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Just discovered that Mr Halstead had a county court judgement against him from 2006 (for £1,513) which was cleared on 4 February 2010 - now, I wonder where he might have got the money to do that?
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Oh boy.
Wonder what MH's next venture will be - I'm sure quite a few of us older and wiser heads who posted on this thread would like "I Told You So" t-shirts!! :ugh: I'm at a bit of a loss to understand the CAA position in all of this. He clearly, under his plans, didn't need an AOC (he wasn't intending to fly anything) but as a ticketing agent, where was his ATOL? My experience of the CAA has been nothing but positive in regards to their commercial regulatory role, and I am trying to work out how he thought he could get away with this - or how he actually could get away with it? That Times article is pretty damning. Of perhaps more concern to us as an industry, is the effect this whole shambles may have on other, more sensible, start-ups. The industry NEEDS start-ups - and if MH has made it harder for anyone more sensible to start, then shame on him. TA |
We have decided to re-instate those threads and posts that were initially deleted for reasons that concerned us. |
I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that the two companies mentioned in post 105 never filed any accounts at all with Companies House.
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Don't say you weren't warned
Oxford Airport denies any recent contact with the owner of Alpha1 Airways, Martin Halstead, and said not to trust the teenage entrepreneur. Last week Malcolm Gault agreed that the scheme was a “brilliant idea”, but criticised the airline’s chief, calling him ‘Walter Mitty mark II’. That was from the Cambridge student newspaper Varsity five years ago. |
but as a ticketing agent, where was his ATOL? Who needs an ATOL? An Air Travel Organiser's Licence (ATOL) is required by law when a firm sells: * flight-based packages; * charter flights; * scheduled flights where an airline ticket is not issued straight away: Travel agents selling flight-based packages and flights as an agent for ATOL holders do not require their own ATOL, providing that these sales are documented correctly. If Varsity Airlines issued flight tickets on the scheduled flights operated by Linksair immediately on application (which as the only ticket seller, it would be able to), then it was in effect operating as a direct agent for the airline - and tickets bought from an airline are not required to be covered by an ATOL. |
Agreed Checkboard - but then, if this was effectively a charter of a LinksAir aircraft by Varsity - who issued the tickets?
That's what is making me wonder... if LinksAir issued the tickets, great. If not - uh oh.... and since the ticket revenue seemed to be piling up in Varsity's accounts, then no ticket was issued by LinksAir! TA |
TA
There is a standard exemption from the need for an ATOL as follows: "Section 5 Class Exemptions from the ATOL Regulations EXEMPTION 1 1 The Civil Aviation Authority, in exercise of its powers under Regulation 5 of the Civil Aviation (Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing) Regulations 1995, hereby exempts from the need to hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (subject to paragraph 3 below) any person who makes available flight accommodation: (a)in aircraft with 19 or fewer seats available for occupation by passengers; " At least there is at the moment - I would imagine that VE will have raised the profile of this at the CAA given that there is a consultation running on updating ATOL regulations. |
Ah, thanks kirkbymoorside!
You live and learn. I spend my life worrying about Type A licences.... Definitely a loophole for our friends in Kingsway.... TA |
Just found this report from the Oxford Times two days before the Sunday Times published their story. Mr Halstead is either completely delusional or willing to continue to mislead in the hope that something might turn up!
But then, hoping something good might turn up appears to have been the entire business case for the airline. If anybody could ever get hold of any business plan that was written, I would be fascinated to read it... "Mr Halstead said: “It has been a pretty awful week. “Varsity Express is now looking to work with other operators, but there is a limit to what I can say for legal reasons. “There was a breakdown in the relationship (with Links Air) and we have suffered a great loss by the breakdown of that relationship. “We are offering refunds to passengers as and when requested. I want to try to move onwards and upwards.” |
Incredible!!!
I feel very sorry fpr the 4 pilots taken for a ride - especially the one mentioned in the Times article. While a few airlines are taking good care of their cadets in prep for an upturn in the economy - it must be gut wrenching for these folks!!! Words fail me:sad::sad: |
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