Travel, tour operator ordered to pay back area customers

WHITE PLAINS – A Connecticut-based travel and tour provider has to pay back dozens of senior citizens he defrauded in the Hudson Valley and elsewhere.

A court order, issued as a result of a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, requires American Heritage Tours owner Peter Heyel to pay over $23,000 in restitution to senior citizens groups he defrauded in Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess and Queens counties as well as West Hartford, CT.

Between 2005 and 2006, Heyel’s American Heritage Tours, also known as Heritage Tours, Connecticut Heritage Tours, Amtrak Tours and Voyages TC, accepted large deposits and payments in advance for bus tours, weekend travel and Broadway show packages. He then cancelled or severely altered the itinerary of eh trips and failed to provide refunds.
In one instance, a Mid-Hudson Valley retirees club paid Heyel over $5,100 for a trip for 54 people, including bus travel from Poughkeepsie to New York City, lunch and tickets to Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast.” The trip was cancelled and no refund given.

Heyel must also pay $5,000 in civil penalty for targeting seniors, $2,500 in penalties and costs, and permanently banned from the New York travel industry unless he posts a $100,000 performance bond.