Crooked travel agent who pretended to have cancer sentenced

Lyne Barlow was warned she faced a lengthy jail term when she admitted a string of charges involving hundreds of victims
Travel agent Lyne Barlow (left) leaving Durham Crown Court, after she admitted conning customers, with the offences said to total £2.6m (Tom Wilkinson/PA)
PA Wire
Tom Wilkinson3 February 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A travel agent was facing a lengthy jail term after she admitted defrauding friends, family and hundreds of customers who bought holidays from her in a £2.6 million con.

Lyne Barlow, 39, who previously lived in Stanley, County Durham, was the subject of a lengthy police investigation after victims came forward in 2020 to allege they had not received holidays they had paid for.

She will appear at Durham Crown Court on Friday after she admitted theft of £500,000 from one person, 10 counts of fraud and a money laundering charge totalling £1,688,220.

Barlow claimed to be suffering from a terminal illness while she was carrying out the con, the court heard at a previous hearing.She did much untold damage to local travel agents who simply could not compete at the unrealistic prices

She did much untold damage to local travel agents who simply could not compete at the unrealistic prices

Travel industry source

Her first victims were family and friends and she used their savings before setting up an independent travel agency, in which she fraudulently sold holidays, claiming them to be ATOL and ABTA protected, Durham Police said.

But many of her customers were to find that the holidays they booked through her business were never paid for by her.

A local travel industry source said Barlow would offer deals such as a five star all-inclusive week in Dubai for just £500.

The source said: “She did much untold damage to local travel agents who simply could not compete at the unrealistic prices.

“We tried to tell numerous people it wasn’t right but as some people were travelling and getting the holidays at these prices – she was clearly funding the shortfall with other people’s money – they wouldn’t believe it.

“We even contacted her ourselves and tried to call her out but she wasn’t fazed in the least and actually tried to recruit us to work for her.

“She lied about having the relevant licences to trade.

“We contacted police but were informed that as people were getting their holidays, at this point there was nothing they could do.

People were literally throwing money at her.”

The industry source said: “Barlow told her customers the reason her holidays were so cheap was because travel agents – legitimate ones – were charging large mark-ups on holidays, when in fact it was her prices that were too good to be true.”

The court heard previously that the prosecution claimed the total of offending reached £2.6 million, though the defence will challenge that figure.

After she admitted the charges, Judge James Adkin granted her bail but warned her: “It’s prison, and a long prison sentence.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in