A fraudulent travel agent who pretended to have terminal cancer and left more than 1,400 holidaymakers out of pocket or stranded abroad has been jailed for nine years.
Lyne Barlow, 39, formerly of Stanley, County Durham, started selling cut-price holiday deals on Facebook in November 2019, having previously been employed as a travel agent.
Lyne Barlow Independent Travel gained a reputation of being able to provide quality holidays at bargain prices and she told customers she was ATOL and ABTA protected.
Read more: Lynn Barlow conned her own mother out of £500,00
News of her incredible offers quickly spread, particularly on social media, with dozens of satisfied customers leaving 5* reviews on holidays they had enjoyed.
Business appeared to be booming, but little did people know it was in fact spiralling out of control.
When she was approached by a potential customer, Barlow would use websites available to any member of the public looking for a holiday.
She would then make the price very attractive by offering a discounted rate to secure the deal.
Barlow would have to cover the discrepancy in price using either her own money or that borrowed from family and friends, loaned from a bank, or using funds from previous holidays paid for by her customers.
Her use of new bookings to fund existing holidays has been described as a ‘Ponzi’ style scheme.
In many cases, she offered customers a holiday or a particular length of stay but what they were getting was a much shorter trip.
In some instances, people were left without return flights, which they only discovered when they had reached their destination and were then left stranded abroad.
Other holidaymakers only discovered they did not have seats on a flight or that the booking had been cancelled because it had not been paid for when they reached the airport.
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Once a holiday had been agreed and payment arrangements made, Barlow would often promise to send booking confirmation details but often failed, to send them - as often they would not exist - despite repeated requests by the customer.
She would cite reasons such as delays from holiday companies and in some cases, customers would be told she was behind with her bookings due to her treatment for cancer.
As she got deeper into financial difficulty, she turned to family, friends and in some cases, almost strangers to ask for temporary loans, telling them she had a temporary cashflow problem and promised to repay the money – which she never did.
Some of the money she did gain was used to fund her own lifestyle, which included foreign holidays, designer clothes and lavish parties.
Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan, of Durham Constabulary’s Economic Fraud Unit, said: “Fraud is a horrendous crime and Barlow’s actions were appalling.
“She made a conscious and deliberate decision to do what she did. There were points at which she could have put a stop to it all, but she carried on and now she is now paying the price for her actions.
“Sadly, so many people have been affected by what she did, lives have been changed forever and some will never be the same again.
“Not only did Barlow offer holidays she could not deliver, but she also took advantage of the generosity and understanding of those around her, which has resulted in such far-reaching consequences.
“She wanted a quality of life she could not afford, which resulted in her defrauding her family, friends, and even complete strangers.
“This is one of the biggest fraud cases Durham Constabulary has ever dealt with and I would like to again thank everyone who came forward for their patience and understanding while we carried out what was a thorough but lengthy investigation.”
Barlow, a mother-of-two, pleaded guilty to several counts of fraud relating to loans, investments, and holiday sales, and a further charge of money laundering when she appeared at Durham Crown Court on Monday, October 10.
This morning, Friday February 3, she appeared at the same court where she was jailed.
Read next:
- County Durham travel agent stole customers' holiday money
- Father who booked a family holiday in Portugal with a bogus travel agent
- Disgraced travel agent pictured arriving at court
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James Lewis, specialist fraud prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Barlow acted with greed, using false promises and deceptive lies, to convince family and friends, as well as hundreds of customers, who all trusted her, to part with their money so that she could sustain her own lavish lifestyle.
“Fraud is an insidious crime and the cost to the many victims in this case has not just been financial; it has also caused huge emotional distress and extreme disappointment to devastated customers who had to find out their holiday did not actually exist at a time when the country was in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Thanks to the thorough investigation by Durham Police and to all the victims who came forward to report her, we were able to bring Barlow to justice.
“We will now be taking steps to recover this money taken through Proceeds of Crime.”
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