A travel agent who faked cancer sent emails to her customers telling them that she had stage three cancer when they said they had concerns over their holiday booking.
Lyne Barlow, 39, defrauded more than 1,400 customers with her fake cancer story, using her sham illness to shield from the avalanche of complaints from devastated families whose holidays failed to materialise.
The travel agent, who was jailed at Durham Crown Court for nine years, received sympathetic emails from customers she tricked into thinking she was gravely ill.
After victims started to inform the authorities of Barlow’s holiday scams, there were so many calls to the police that they had to be directed to an email address because emergency callers would have been unable to get through.
In total Barlow could be proven to have defrauded family, friends and customers out of £1.2m, but investigators believe the total sum she gained over a period of five years from 2015 to 2020 was £2.6m.
Lyne Barlow, 39, claimed to her customers that she was covered by insurance and was a member of the trusted travel brand Association of British Travel Agents
When one of her customers asked about her existing booking, Barlow wrote back telling them that she had stage three cancer.
One of the duped victims over Barlow’s cancer lie responded: ‘I am so sorry to hear this it’s awful times for you. I will keep this to myself’
Emails showed how the dodgy travel agent duped her victims into thinking she was battling cancer.
When one of her customers asked about her existing booking, Barlow wrote back telling them that she had stage three cancer.
Barlow wrote: ‘Unfortunately I’ve just found out my cancer has spread and it’s gone to stage 3/4 it’s in my bones and need to have chemo put into my spine to stop it from getting to my brain.
‘It’s going to be pretty intense.’
One of the duped victims over Barlow’s cancer lie responded: ‘I am so sorry to hear this it’s awful times for you. I will keep this to myself.’
Another victim emails Barlow after not hearing about their holiday booking despite following up several times.
Barlow tells them that she was not well enough to work last week and missed the customers successive emails that were concerned about their imminent holiday booking.
Another of Barlow’s concerned customers emails to ask her how her treatment is going and to ask about why their flights are yet to be changed.
The travel agent, who has was jailed at Durham Crown Court for nine years, received sympathetic emails from customers she tricked into thinking she was gravely ill
Barlow tells one of the victims that she was not well enough to work last week and missed the customers successive emails that were concerned about their imminent holiday booking.
In September 2020, worried customers started to share their experiences on social media about holidays falling through after booking with the 39-year-old’s business.
To cope with the sudden influx of calls about the holiday scams, Durham Police directed victims to an email address for people to lodge their complaints, then set up a 20-strong team of officers to follow up.
They recorded more than 450 crimes, involving around 1,400 victims, and it became one of Durham Police’s largest ever fraud investigations.
Detectives soon decided to arrest and interview the mother-of-two and even as officers went to her home in Stanley, County Durham, customers were knocking on her door to try to find out what had happened to their bookings, and their money.
Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan said: ‘Victims were turning up at the house as she was being arrested.
‘Some were angry and concerned, others were relatively sympathetic towards her because of her saying she had cancer.’
The business which largely operated on social media had spiralled out of control after happy customers shared word of the fabulous holidays they had enjoyed at knock-down prices – deals which were unsustainably cheap.
So when people’s bookings fell through, flights had not been booked and some were even left stranded abroad, word spread equally as fast online, sparking the deluge of complaints to police.
Her operation angered many people who lost out on dream holidays for key birthdays, hen dos and even wedding parties.
There was an arson attack on her home – the address from which she ran her business – on the night she was arrested, police said.
No-one has been prosecuted for that offence.
Travel agent Lyne Barlow (left) arrives at Durham Crown Court to be sentenced for defrauding friends, family and hundreds of customers who bought holidays from her in a £2.6 million con
Lyne Barlow claimed to her customers that she was covered by insurance and was a member of the trusted travel brand Association of British Travel Agents. (Pictured left: Lyne Barlow)
Barlow was so determined to continue her charade that she even convinced her husband, Paul, and son and daughter she was battling cancer.
Family members took her to hospital appointments, unaware that she was simply waiting inside before re-emerging claiming to have seen her consultant.
To make her story more convincing, she cut off strands of her hair and scattered them across her pillow to make it look as though she was losing it to chemotherapy.
When Barlow was arrested in 2020 she hobbled into the police station with her head swathed in a scarfe and walking with a stick.
Custody photographs show a vast difference when she was re-arrested a year later and was forced to admit her ‘stage 3/4’ cancer had been a fabrication.
DailyMail
