Blue Swan Insurance policies

Mr Nicpon is the owner of Blue Swan Insurance (Jersey) Ltd, which sold holiday cover through UK travel agencies. And now some of his policies are coming back to haunt customers in all sorts of ways. Three years ago, Susan Cartwright bought one of his policies before travelling to the French Alps. On the first morning of her skiing holiday she broke her leg in two places, and had to have a plate fitted. She ended up staying in hospital for four days and needed almost 4,000 euros worth of hospital treatment. As she had her insurance she wasn't concerned about the bill.

Demands for money
Unfortunately, what Susan didn't know is that Blue Swan Insurance was in trouble, and when she returned home the French hospital began sending her demands for money. It was only then that she realised her bill hadn't been paid. In early 2006, a couple of months after Susan returned from skiing, Blue Swan Insurance went bust.

This shouldn't have been a problem for Susan because UK policies are protected by the Financial Services Authority, but because the company is based in Jersey, she wasn't eligible.

Blue Swan Insurance has left Susan facing a massive bill. But now other people who had holiday cover with the company have been getting nasty surprises too. They've been contacted years after making successful claims and this time the demands for money are harder to understand.

Money troubles
In July 2005 Reverend David Monkton was on holiday in Malta when his appendix burst. He claimed through Blue Swan Insurance before their money troubles, and once it was settled, assumed that was that. Until last October, three and a half years later, when he received a very odd letter. It said he owed money for travel expenses and it needed to be paid within 14 days, otherwise debt collectors would be called in.

Frank Marshall received the same letter. While in Cuba in March 2005, he suffered a major stroke that left him partially paralysed. After Blue Swan Insurance sorted his claim, neither he, nor his sister Tina Gillard, who looks after him, expected to hear about it again.

Tina told us: "As far as we were concerned it was paid up and we never heard anything until we got this letter, three and a half years later. Frank now had to pay £9,446. Everybody panicked, of course we did, I mean it's a lot of money, you can't just fetch it out of a drawer."

Faceless
It's not at all clear why the people getting this letter are being asked to pay up. But if they do, we've discovered exactly where their money would go. Straight to Mr Nicpon. He turns out to be the director of the company sending out the letters, Blue Swan Travel (which is the trading name of the company ATM Travel Services Ltd). Of course the name, Blue Swan Travel sounds remarkably similar to Blue Swan Insurance (Jersey) Ltd, the company Mr Nicpon owned. But the letters don't mention the companies are linked or that the same man is behind them. David said: "I objected to being threatened by someone who was faceless. The letter wasn't signed, it was just a swish or something like that."

It seems Mr Nicpon is chasing his former customers for money one of his Blue Swan companies owes the other.

Insurance expert Richard Hanson-James told us he has no right to do this: "I think this is outrageous. There's no justification at all for any of them. We've been dealing with travel claims for decades now. I've never seen anything quite like this."

But if you don't know that you shouldn't pay up, these letters are incredibly frightening to receive. One woman told us she's handed over more than £1,000 because she felt she had no choice.

When Watchdog attempted to contact Mr Nicpon we received a letter from "The Board of Directors" of ATM Travel Services Ltd, the company behind Blue Swan Travel. The letter didn't answer any of the questions we had asked.

It said that the company was entitled to the money but didn't tell us why.
It said that "the recipient of the service remains liable for the cost of the service received." And that "debt recovery will where necessary be done with the assistance of the English Courts."