The owner of a coach travel company has apologised for the problems which left customers out of pocket and without their holidays.

Nigel Glenholmes, of Atlantis Coach Travel, of The Arcade, High Street, Uxbridge, wrote in to the Gazette in response to last week's story about the company.

The story said several angry customers were demanding refunds for pre-booked holidays and theatre trips which never happened because the coaches did not show up.

Meanwhile, news of further problems have come to light after the directors of Display Signs Group, of Popes Quay off Rockingham Road, Uxbridge, revealed they are still waiting to be paid for a job they did for Atlantis several months ago.

Mr Glenholmes, who bought the travel company from Symon Hoffreiter, blamed the chaos on a burglary at the office in which all the records and bookings were stolen, as well as the fact he had been off sick for eight weeks after breaking his back.

Jane Kelvey, of Display Signs Group, said: "We did work for Atlantis in February at a cost of around £700 and were given two cheques as payment, which both bounced.

"We made repeated contact with Mr Glenholmes, including by phone, email and in person, and each time we received assurances the money was coming.

"Eventually we were forced to issue a county court summons against the firm on May 7.

"He had until last Tuesday to respond and yet still we heard nothing."

She added: "We've been in business for 30 years and have never been given the run-around like this before."

Mrs Kelvey has looked into the matter thoroughly and found three separate companies regis-tered to the Atlantis name, with different addresses for each.

They visited all of them, including an address in Slough, which turned out to be a house, but without success.

Carole Haslam and partner John Lyons are a further two customers of Atlantis who are owed refunds of £258 after a trip to Prague was cancelled last year.

Ms Haslam said: "We thought we were the only ones this had happened to, until we read the Gazette article last week.

"Something must be done to make the owner accountable, otherwise what is to stop it happening to more people?"

If you have been a victim of the Atlantis problems, please get in touch via www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk