TTG understands that police have been in contact with sources close to the investigation into the collapse of Globespan.

There is no suggestion of a formal police investigation but officers are understood to have approached at least two people close to the situation.

It comes as Globespan administrators took legal action against Globespan’s credit card payment processing firm E-Clear, which could force the company into administration within weeks.

PricewaterhouseCoopers filed a winding-up petition this week as a means of forcing E-Clear to disclose if it has £35 million of customer payments that the administrators believe it was withholding from Globespan when the airline went bust before Christmas.

PwC has said it believes the £35 million, understood to include about £20 million from customers who had already flown, is “excessive”.

It asked E-Clear to place the £35 million into a joint account before Christmas but the money was not transferred, which led to attacks on the company by Scottish politicians angry at the loss of jobs through the failure of Globespan.

E-Clear chief executive Elias Elia this week hit back at claims that his company’s withholding of the funds was behind the collapse of Globespan.

He said the money held was from customers who were entitled to refunds if they were not satisfied with the service provided by Globespan, for example if flights were not taken because the airline went bust.

Elia said Flyglobespan wanted the money in advance, which would have left his firm exposed if there were claims from credit card holders.

E-Clear also issued a statement saying it was committed to cooperating with the administrators.

The company is also facing a claim for millions of euros from Slovak authorities winding up SkyEurope, which collapsed last August.

A third claim for about £300,000 has also reportedly been made by Canadian travel group Go Travel Direct for overdue payments.

E-Clear was contacted for a comment by TTG on Wednesday, but did not respond.

The story so far: Globespan, E-Clear and Libra

• Globespan Group, which included the Flyglobespan airline and a tour operator, failed on December 16.

• Administrators for Globespan, Pricewater-houseCoopers, say credit card payment processing company E-Clear was withholding £35 million in payments to the failed airline and operator.

• Allbury Travel Group, owners of Libra, Argo and Jetlife, failed on December 18. Allbury was another client of E-Clear.

• Allbury Travel Group was owned by British Virgin Islands-based Allbury Ltd, which is controlled by Elias Elia, chief executive of E-Clear.

• A spokeswoman for Elia said last month that Allbury had surrendered its Atol licence rather than having it revoked by the CAA.

• E-Clear is based in Berkeley Square in London’s Mayfair. The same address is home to Elian Developers UK, which runs property developments in Cyprus. Elia is chief executive of Elian developments