AURIGNY was duped into discussions with a 17-year-old posing as an airline executive.

But the airline quite quickly spotted he was a fake last year, unlike Jersey’s airport authorities, which according to yesterday’s Sunday Times were set to hold follow-up talks with him this week.

The boy from Yorkshire used pseudonyms including Adam Tait to approach various established airlines to ask whether they wanted to give him a franchise agreement during a ruse that lasted for six months.

His exploits also included placing articles in industry magazines.

Aurigny managing director Malcolm Hart (pictured) told the Guernsey Press yesterday that he had spoken to the teenager about a year ago.

‘It never sounded right from the start,’ said Mr Hart. ‘He said he was in L.A., but never knew the places I knew. He said to look at the website, but that was always “under construction”. I quickly came to the conclusion it was a load of rubbish and we heard nothing about it until Airliner World produced an article a month ago.’

The teenager used different names when he spoke to Aurigny, including David Rich.

‘After a couple of phone calls it was pretty clear I wasn’t going to give any substance to it,’ said Mr Hart, who was surprised how many people were taken in by the spoof.

Last Monday, the teenager was questioned by Essex police after trying to gain access to a 93-seater jet at Southend Airport.

They had been tipped off by Airliner World, which had played a recording of his voice to Mr Coupar as it worked on exposing the caper. Police took no further action.

The boy’s father told the Sunday Times that his son suffered from a form of autism and was a ‘phenomenal individual who is enterprising and creative’.