Bestjet director claims collapse caused by $3.2m payment that ‘did not materialise’
The director of the collapsed flight-booking service Bestjet has told a meeting of the company’s creditors that he was forced to go into voluntary administration after he did not receive a promised $3.2m payment from the company’s former owners.
Last week Guardian Australia reported the Queensland-based budget airfare company Bestjet had gone into voluntary administration just days before Christmas.
Its collapse left travellers who booked flights through the company thousands of dollars out of pocket and desperate for answers.
According to the minutes of a creditors’ meeting held last week, Bestjet owes about $7.28m to about 2,300 unsecured creditors.
The company’s administrators, Pilot Partners, told the meeting they were receiving about 400 creditor inquiries each day.
Bestjet’s new owner told the meeting he had been “legally obliged” to place the company into administration after a promised $3.2m payment from its Singaporean arm never materialised.
Bestjet was founded by Rachel James, the wife of former Air Australia owner and chief executive Michael James, just weeks after the budget airline’s high-profile collapse in 2012.
It was sold to McVicker International in November and its sole director, Robert Bruce McVicker, has not spoken publicly since the company’s collapse.
But a transcript of comments made by McVicker at a creditors’ meeting last week reveal he blamed “misleading and deceptive actions by others” on Bestjet’s collapse..
The transcript, lodged with Asic, reveals McVicker told creditors a promised $3.2m payment from Bestjet Singapore had never been made.
Company records show Rachel James is still a director of Bestjet Singapore.
“Later in my tenure, we were told a $3.2m payment would be transferred from Bestjet Singapore (an entity outside of the Bestjet Group’s control) on or before the 17th of December, however this did not materialise,” McVicker said, according to the transcript lodged with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
“I was then legally obliged as director to place the Bestjet Group into voluntary administration.”
McVicker International was only registered in October, a few weeks before the sale, and minutes from the creditors’ meeting show the administrators appointed to the company believe there is “evidence that 50% of the shares were held on trust” for Rachel James.
But while thousands of Australian travellers stand to lose money from the company’s collapse, both McVicker and Rachel James have pointed the finger at each other.
McVicker told the meeting he had received “no financial benefit” from his involvement with Bestjet, and said his reputation had been “irretrievable damaged” because of his involvement with the company.
“Notwithstanding I had a legal obligation to place the Bestjet group into voluntary administration, I felt doing so was the only way a thorough investigation could occur and would give the best and fairest outcome for creditors,” he told the meeting.
He said he entered the business “with integrity, high hopes and optimism” and that “due to legal issues based on misleading and deceptive actions by others I am restrained at this time to give more detailed information”.
It comes after Rachel James released a statement on Saturday blaming McVicker for the company’s collapse, saying she and her family were “distraught” to learn that Bestjet had gone into administration.
“During the last eight weeks, under new ownership and management, Bestjet has gone from a profitable business that followed stringent operational, financial and industry protocols, to one that has devastated thousands of customers and hundreds of staff,” James said.
Calling the demise “heartbreaking”, she said it had “rattled” her family.