Barclays Bank has been forced to compensate 1,500 customers who were missold timeshare loans worth up to £48 million by Malta’s Azure Services, a Corinthia-owned tourism and timeshare company at the Radisson Blu Golden Sands.

A Financial Times report has revealed that Barclays has been ordered to repay the interests charges on loans issued between April 2014 and April 2016 by Azure Services, which filed for liquidation in May 2020. 

Barclays, who decided to repay the interest rather than face a tribunal, will now refund about £30 million to the customers – and classify the remaining funds as a bad debt. 

Barclays had a contract with Azure Resorts Limited, which was authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority for credit brokering. However, it later discovered the staff were employed by the unlicensed Azure Services Limited.

Lovin Malta has spoken to previous customers of the timeshare operation – who regularly described loans with generally high-interest rates. The Financial Times said that the customers were charged in excess of 9%.

“We recognise that we did not provide the right level of service for some customers who bought timeshare loans,” Barclays said. “We will be contacting those impacted to apologise for what has happened, and to let them know how we will be putting this right.”

Azure Services Limited was an MFSA registered company owned by Corinthia and Mediterranean Overseas Holdings Limited.

It was set up by the Island Hotels Group in 2003, which marketed timeshares at the Radisson Blu Golden Sands. It was sold to Corinthia in 2015.

Ex-Manchester United football players Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs once held shares in the company.

It first hit the news in 2019 for misselling timeshares to hundreds of British holidaymakers in 2019.

Customers had complained that the terms of the loans were not explained to them, and that proper credit checks were not carried out and that they were pressured into signing deals. There have also been claims that “false representations” were also made about the loans’ financial impact.

The company ran into financial trouble towards the end of 2019. That December, a large chunk of the workforce was told that they would be made redundant to make way for an “elite team” as part of a new strategy.

A liquidator was chosen in May 2020. However, it remains to be seen whether they have been able to address questions surrounding the thousands of people from Malta, the UK, and Sweden who have long term contracts to stay at the hotel for one or two week periods every year.