The final days of a bogus North-East airline set up by a Nigerian fraudster have been revealed by two former staff members. Joe Wills reports

MIKE JANES remembers clearly the first time he met Victor Bassey. He was greeting guests at the door at Middlesbrough Community Church just before Christmas 2008 when the Nigerian and his wife came in.

The following month he bumped into Victor Bassey again. This time he and another church member, Mike Connolly, met the businessman at a networking function. Soon afterwards, Bassey revealed his plans to launch a new airline – Excelsis Aviation Ltd – which would fly between Durham Tees Valley and London.

A year later, the fledgling business set up by Mr Janes and Mr Connolly – E-Strands – was owed £10,000 after designing the Excelsis website.

It was money they were never going to get back. Excelsis had collapsed, owing £115,000.

Last month, Bassey was jailed for two years after admitting eight charges of fraud at Teesside Crown Court.

People have asked him how on earth he could have been taken in, says Mr Janes. “But when you look at the evidence, the number of professional people who were brought on board, we honestly thought that it was a business that would, if you pardon the pun, take off. When he came to us with his plans it was, like yes, this is a great idea.”

But it was not just Bassey’s ambitions plans that convinced the pair to get involved. The fraudster had been in discussions with the North-East England Investment Centre (NEEIC), which distributes public funds to businesses. NEEIC had agreed to pay 70 per cent of the cost – more than £6,000 – of building the website.

Other documents were produced by Bassey to reinforce the project’s legitimacy, including a 56-page business plan. The document seemed impressive – until Mr Connolly discovered that it had been copied from the web.

Bassey produced a specification for an airline computer booking system, which was also found to be plagiarised from the internet. As well as fake wire transfer documents for millions of US dollars that he created on his home computer, Bassey also produced ideas for a promotional leaflet and even a seating plan for the offices at Morton Palms, in Darlington.

When arrangements to use the Darlington offices fell through, the newly-formed team of 12 Excelsis employees gathered at the Thistle Hotel, in Middlesbrough.

“I wanted a job in aviation IT and this was a dream for me,” says Mr Connolly. “Sitting in the boardroom with all those experienced staff, it seemed right. There was nothing criminal that we could see.”

The team began to source possible aircraft and a trip to an aircraft auction in Spain was planned. Bassey claimed he already had one jet mothballed in mainland Europe.

Senior staff were promised company cars and Bassey even took workers to look at vehicles.

Detailed discussions with Durham Tees Valley Airport took place.

By now the relationship between the two men and Bassey had moved beyond business.

Mr Janes and Mr Connolly had become friends with Bassey and had met his wife, Comfort, and young daughter. At one point, Mr Janes even took the couple to see a large farm near Darlington they said they wanted to buy.

The friendship began to be tested, however, when wages went unpaid. The business partners have calculated that the Excelsis team was told up to a dozen times, “You will be paid today”, or “The money is in the bank”.

For Mr Janes, the money became a secondary issue following the death of his mother in September, 2009.

“I was standing face-to-face with Victor. He gave me his condolences and then he looked me straight in the face and promised me that the invoices would be paid,” he says.

But, despite repeated assurances, no one was paid. And the lies kept coming.

Staff were told the money was tied up in bonds for Bassey’s three children in London.

Once he claimed he had visited all the employees’ banks and paid in some money. On another occasion, he told staff to meet him in Middlesbrough to receive their money. The meeting was later cancelled.

Excelsis effectively closed on October 6 when staff finally decided enough was enough. The police were already investigating.

Only Bassey can know his reasons for setting up Excelsis, though a picture of an aeroplane pinned up in the conman’s former home, in Grange Road, Middlesbrough, may hold a clue.

According to the two businessmen, Bassey called it his board of dreams. Others, including the judge who put him away for two years, would probably say the company was more of a fantasy.

The rise and fall of an airline

EXCELSIS Aviation, the company set up by conman Victor Bassey to run flights between the North-East and London, is being formally dissolved. Companies House is taking action to strike off Excelsis for failing to submit statutory documents.

The company collapsed leaving debts of more than £100,000. Another company set up by Bassey and registered to the company’s former offices in Darlington, Victory Aviation Holding Limited, is also being struck off.

Excelsis founder Victor Bassey was jailed for two years in December for fraud. The judge branded him a compulsive conman who lived in a fantasy world. Teesside Crown Court heard that the 50-year-old had five previous convictions for 19 offences which dated back to 1989. Police also discovered Bassey had used at least five different aliases.