REASSURANCES have been offered to concerned customers who hold bookings with a Darlington travel agency that closed its doors suddenly last month.

The owners of Christie’s Travel in Cockerton have apologised to their clients after unanticipated financial pressures forced them to close the agency and the newsagents they operated from the same site.

Pensioners Audrey and Gordon Simpson paid Christie’s Travel more than £1,500 to book a trip to Benidorm in March and became concerned after visiting their offices and finding them closed recently.

The premises, at the Cockerton shopping parade, now stand empty with a sign in the window saying: “We are so sorry we are having to close. We’ve made new friends and don’t like letting you down but thank you for your custom and support and apologise for any inconvenience.”

Mr and Mrs Simpson, aged 76 and 77, feared their booking had been lost and spoke out to warn any other customers that may be affected.

Speaking to The Northern Echo on Monday, Mr Simpson said: “We were waiting for our tickets to arrive and then our daughter told us that the office was closed down - we’ve phoned 30 times and had no reply to our emails.

“We’ve booked with them before and they seemed very genuine, we’re just worried we may not get to go away because the holiday company have sent the tickets to the travel agency.

“There must be other people this is happening to and we think those people need to know.”

Iain Christie, director of the business, apologised to customers and said all outstanding bookings would be honoured by the Global Travel Group.

Mr Christie said he had bent over backwards to ensure customers would not be disadvantaged by the closure of Christie’s Travel.

He added: “All of the bookings are safe and the Global Travel Group should be contacting all customers.

“We are sorry it came to this but there is nothing at all sinister going on here, we have not run off with anyone’s money and we are definitely not fly-by-nights.

“I want to apologise for any unnecessary concern caused and reassure customers that their bookings are in the hands of a very large organisation.”

Mr and Mrs Simpson said they were relieved to hear that their booking would be honoured and were looking forward to their trip.