Travel agent who pretended to have cancer and conned customers in £1.2million scam jailed

A travel agent who faked having cancer while scamming customers out of £1.2million has been jailed.

Lyne Barlow, who previously lived in Stanley, County Durham, has been handed a nine-year prison sentence at Durham Crown Court after defrauding more than 1,400 customers, including friends and family.

Jailing the 39-year-old on Friday, Judge Jo Kidd told Barlow she had “an extraordinary talent for dishonesty” after hearing that she had stolen more than £500,000 from her own mother following the death of her father in 2015.

Barlow was the subject of a lengthy police investigation after victims came forward in 2020 to allege that they hadn't received holiday's they'd paid for.

On October 10 Barlow admitted to theft of £500,000 from one person as well as 10 counts of fraud and money laundering.

Lyne Barlow when she was first arrested and claimed she had cancer, which was a lie (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)

Lyne (left) was sentenced at Durham Crown Court (Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)

Durham Police said she tricked victims, including her close relatives, into believing she had cancer as a means to deflect complaints when people contacted her about missing booking references.

Barlow started by targeting her own friends and using their savings to set up her own independent travel agency.

She sold luxury holidays at knock-down prices but was funding the sales in a ponzi-style scheme by bringing in new customers to fund existing ones.

Lyne lied to her customers about having cancer (PA)

She conned over 1,400 people (PA)

Police also said she fraudulently sold holidays claiming that they were ATOL and ABTA protected.

A local travel industry source claimed that Barlow would offer deals with "unrealistic prices" such as a five star all-inclusive week in Dubai for just £500.

An email exchange Lyne Barlow had with a customer discussing changing holiday and flights (PA)

She falsely claimed the holidays were ATOL protected (PA)

They 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.”