I write to advise readers of an appalling experience we have recently had with Arkno Tours, in the hope that prospective visitors to Libya will think carefully about using a company whose staff rip off, harass and assault its clients.

Arkno (http://www.arkno.com) is based at Basher al-Ibrahimi Street No.1, Garden City. PO Box 2170, Tripoli and its London office is at 1-3 Love Lane, Woolwich, London SE18 6QT (http://www.arknouk.com/)

Arkno Tours is a Libyan Government-approved Tour operator. Anyone who wants to visit Libya must deal with Arkno or one of its competitors to get a letter of invitation and a guide, as both are essential for obtaining a Libyan visa and for being allowed into the country. And thus, it was Arkno we paid for a visa, customs clearance for our car, 27 days of a guide’s services and 11 days of a desert guide in his own car a desert guide in his own vehicle at an additional cost of 68 pounds a day (a legal requirement in Libya for a foreigner wishing to visit the desert). This guide arrived a day late and left a day early and thus we only had 9 days of a service for which we paid for 11 days of.

The final draft of the itinerary provided for us to start visiting the desert on 13 April. However, we actually spent this day driving on tarmac and spent the afternoon looking at a museum. The desert guide first appeared on the night of 13th April. We reached the desert only on 14 April. The desert guide was with us until the evening of 22 April, when he departed before sunset - Amil/Amer Ghoula, our guide at the time, told us the desert guide had to do this as his time was up. However, the itinerary states that 23 April should have been the last day that the desert guide spent with us.

This means the desert guide and his 4x4 were with us for just 9 days and 9 nights and certainly these were the only days when we did any off-road driving.

The original guide Amil left us in Gharyan on 25 April which was prearranged owing to Amil’s family commitments. However, by the time of his departure our relationship with Amil had deteriorated as a result of us querying why the desert guide had left early and Amil spent the last 2 days with us sulking in a state of near-mutism. Amil had done a couple of things for us previously and I believe he was annoyed at not receiving payment for them, although we had certainly thanked him at the time. We had been intending to sort out payment with Amil, however with the overcharging issue having just reared its head we were not about to hand over more money to Arkno’s people and it was impossible to discuss anything with Amil during the last 2 days. Amil was replaced by a new guide named Utman – we never got his surname, but he is 27, lives in Tripoli and his number is +218 925176362.

Utman was superficially a more enthusiastic and proactive guide than Amil, but it quickly became clear that Amil had primed him thoroughly with what he thought of us. From his home, Amil frequently called Utman on his mobile and they spoke in our presence (in Arabic). Utman fed us a steady diet of snippets of how much Amil hated us. Utman has also visited the UK and has many friends in London and elsewhere.

During this time, we were repeatedly calling and emailing Arkno to try and resolve the overcharging issue. We heard nothing but a deafening silence from Craig Baguley in the London office and from Ghuman Adains in the Tripoli office. We did speak to Ghuman by phone, and he told us to discuss the issue with Craig as our contract was with him (despite the wording on the invoice from Craig in London which read 'Please note that we act solely as an Information Office on behalf of Arkno Tours of 38 Sharia Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakabi, Tripoli, Libya / T: +218 (0)21 444 1452. All travel arrangements are contracted directly with Arkno Tours'). It seemed that each was trying to pass the buck.

On Tuesday 1 May I injured my foot and Utman drove the car. During this time, 2 important keys disappeared off my keyring. There was no way this could have happened without someone physically removing them and nobody but Utman on that day had possession of the keyring apart from me. Against my better judgement, I stopped short of accusing Utman for being responsible for the keys going missing. On the same day, I know Utman and Amil spoke via mobile and Amil started sending us hate texts. The first one read 'According to what you have said, how can it be to make mony of skinny pig.....?' and the second one read 'You are riff-raff of England'.

Thursday 3 May was our last day in Libya and in the morning we were due to drive from Tobruk to the Libya/Egypt border but, as repeated searches had failed to turn up the missing keys, we decided to report the suspected theft/loss to the police before leaving Tobruk. Utman clearly was not happy with this and it is a matter of considerable regret that he was the only person in the police station who was able to speak and write English. I wrote a statement in English, but have heavy reservations about the accuracy of Utman’s subsequent translation of it into Arabic. Meanwhile, he was chatting happily in Arabic with the police and they were offering him cigarettes, which I thought rather suspicious. My partner Amanda noticed that Utman had discreetly copied my UK home address from the statement onto a piece of paper and put it in his pocket.

Before getting into the car, Amanda and I challenged Utman about why he had taken my home address. Utman responded by shouting abuse at us, taking the piece of paper from his pocket and ripping it into shreds. He then got into the car. Fearing that he would come back to Tobruk after leaving us at the border and pick up the address, I retrieved the shreds of paper from the ground. Utman jumped out of the car and tried to prise the paper from my hand before throwing a punch at me, which fortunately I blocked. During this scuffle, I sustained 4 scratches to my left hand (pictures are available).

I now regret not going straight back to the police station in Tobruk and taking matters further regarding this assault. But we had arrangements with friends whom we were due to meet in Egypt and I was conscious that using the only person in the vicinity who could speak English to interpret for us whilst reporting him for assault would be highly problematic. Of course, we could have contacted the British Embassy in Tripoli for help but this too would have delayed matters, to say nothing of us having to return to Libya (or being kept in the country waiting) for any possible case to come to court.

Thus we left Utman at the border and entered Egypt. It is my belief that Utman would have stopped at the Tobruk police station on his way back to Tripoli and retrieved my home address from the statement deposited there. I do not plan to return to the UK until 2008, but am exceedingly worried about what might happen to my property (which is rented) in my absence – or indeed myself when I return.

Meanwhile, I hope this does not discourage any prospective visitors to Libya, a country with fascinating scenery and kind, friendly people. Certainly I am not trying to do this, but for your own sake think twice about using Arkno Tours. One of Arkno’s guides physically attacked one of us while the other launched a campaign of harassment. Arkno has taken our money but has not provided us with the service we have paid for and has refused to discuss our complaints. Arkno has also tried to make its contracts governed by Libyan law and thus practically unenforceable unless before a Libyan court.

Mark Iles / Amanda Holligan