Travel agent who lied about having cancer while scamming hundreds of holidaymakers in £2.6m con is jailed
A travel agent who lied about having cancer while scamming hundreds of holidaymakers in a £2.6m con has been jailed.
Lyne Barlow carried out one of the biggest frauds ever investigated by Durham Police – and told people she had a terminal illness while she committed her crimes.
She initially targeted her own family and friends and used their savings before setting up a travel agency, in which she fraudulently sold holidays.
Barlow, 39, admitted the theft of £500,000 from her own mother following the death of her father in 2015, as well as 10 charges of fraud and one count of money laundering.
Jailing her for nine years at Durham Crown Court on Friday, Judge Jo Kidd told Barlow she had “an extraordinary talent for dishonesty”.
The fraudster 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.
Many of her 1,400 victims discovered the holidays they bought through her business were never booked or paid for by her.
Durham Police said Barlow 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.
A local travel industry source said Barlow, from Stanley, County Durham, would offer prices to customers that were “too good to be true”.
She is understood to have offered deals such as a five-star all-inclusive week in Dubai for as little as £500.
Lyne Barlow pictured leaving Durham Crown Court at an earlier hearing
‘Disgraceful’ crimes
Jay Steward, 53, told Sky News he booked two holidays with Barlow in 2020 after she was recommended by a friend.
He bought a week’s getaway for his daughter and her boyfriend at an all-inclusive five-star hotel in Dubai, which was priced at £1,000 for the couple.
He also paid around £700 for a week in Malta for himself and his wife Julie for their 27th wedding anniversary. The holiday was on sale for half the price being offered by a well-known travel operator, he said.
After the COVID pandemic forced the holidays to be cancelled, Mr Steward said he received “excuses” about why there were delays to his money being refunded.
He said he then received a message saying Barlow had cancer and she “can’t respond to messages”.
It was only after he mentioned that he planned to contact his credit card company that he received the money back, Mr Steward added.
He told Sky News he felt like he had a “dodged a bullet” and branded Barlow’s crimes “disgraceful”, saying: “I feel so sorry for those people who’ve lost everything.”
Barlow was jailed on Friday. Pic: Durham Constabulary
‘Barlow tried to recruit us’
Another holidaymaker who booked a cruise holiday with Barlow said she paid upfront after being offered a 10% discount.
After the trip was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, she paid an extra £350 to book on to another cruise – and says the additional payment has not been returned.
The industry source said Barlow “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,” the source told PA news agency.
“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.”
Barlow told her customers that the reason her deals were so cheap was because other travel agents were charging “large mark-ups” on holidays, when in fact it was her prices “that were too good to be true”, according to the source.
She also “lied about having the relevant licences to trade,” the source added.
They said: “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.”
Barlow offered a five-star all-inclusive week in Dubai for as little as £500. File pic
‘Lives changed forever’
Barlow claimed the holidays she offered were covered by ATOL and ABTA protection schemes, which provide financial protection for package holidays if the travel company goes bust.
The judge said the amount stolen over seven years was £2.6m, causing a loss of over £1.2m.
Police said the fraud charges related to loans, investments and holiday sales.
At a previous hearing, Tony Davis, defending, asked for the court to allow a psychiatric report to be prepared and referred to the fact Barlow had told some people she had a terminal illness.
Her travel business is no longer operational, and its social media page was taken down shortly after her arrest in September 2020.
Detective Sergeant Alan Meeha said fraud was a “horrendous crime” and there were “far-reaching consequences” for the victims.
“So many people have been affected by her actions, lives have been changed forever and some are still feeling the effects today,” Mr Meeha added.
“This is one of the biggest fraud cases Durham Constabulary has ever dealt with and I would like to thank everyone who came forward for their patience and understanding while we carried out a thorough investigation.”
Footage of the moment 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s alleged killers were detained after police boarded their plane back to the UK has been played in court.
As they are approached by officers, Sara‘s stepmother Beinash Batool is heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”
Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against her culminating in her death at her family home in Surrey on 8 August last year.
The defendants, along with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13, flew to Pakistan the following day.
Sara’s body was found by police in a bunkbed on 10 August after Sharif called police from Pakistan to say he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.
A murder investigation was launched involving agencies including Interpol and the National Crime Agency to locate the defendants.
They returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.
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‘I beat her up too much’
The clips of officers’ body-worn video shown to the jury on Friday captured the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.
After Batool addresses the officers, Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, is asked to follow them.
The three were then taken off the plane and arrested.
Pic: Surrey Police
A post-mortem examination established Sara had sustained extensive and significant injuries over a sustained period prior to her death.
The jury heard on Friday how concerns were raised by Sara’s school about bruising on her body in June 2022 and March 2023.
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Several items seized from Sara’s home were also reviewed by the court, including a leather belt which had full DNA samples at both ends for Sara, Sharif, and Malik.
A cricket bat was also found to have Sara’s DNA profile on it, along with the DNA samples of Sharif and Malik.
Neither item had a DNA trace of Batool.
The court also reviewed the defendants’ bank accounts – both joint and separate.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.
Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.
Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.
Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.
Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.
“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.
The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.
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Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.
Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.
UK
Ex-soldier Daniel Khalife tells court it was a ‘foolish idea’ to have someone with his ‘skillset’ in prison
A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison to avoid being held with sex offenders and terrorists showed his “skillset”.
Daniel Khalife, 23, who was being held accused of passing secrets to Iran said he was “never a real spy” but planned a fake defection to the state following his arrest after watching American television show Homeland.
He said he wanted to be moved to a high-security unit because he was getting unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and feared a move to Belmarsh prison because, as a British soldier, terrorists wanted to kill him.
Khalife said he first wanted to “make a show” of escaping, acting suspiciously and covering himself in soot from a food delivery lorry on 21 August last year, while he was working in the prison kitchen.
He was spotted and reported to security but was “pretty shocked” when nothing happened so decided to take the “full measure,” he told the jury.
A makeshift sling. Pic: Met Police
Talking about his escape for the first time at his Woolwich Crown Court trial, Khalife told how he fashioned a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by inmates to keep their possessions safe from rats.
He attached it to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September last year, to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.
“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope underneath the lorry,” he said.
“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly so I tested the security not just in Wandsworth
“Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”
Then on the morning of 6 September, Khalife said he concealed himself underneath the lorry, resting his back on the sling as the lorry was searched.
“They did normal checks around with torches but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’
“I was facing upwards. There was action around the lorry.”
Daniel Khalife joined the Army aged 16
He said that when the vehicle stopped he “came out underneath the lorry and stayed in the prone position” until the lorry moved off.
Khalife, who joined the Army aged 16 and took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, said he made no attempt to leave the country and had no intention to “run away” from the charges he was facing.
He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.
Asked why he had not handed himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison. What use was that to anyone?”
“I accept that I left the prison and didn’t have any permission to do so,” he said. “I accept absolutely that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
Daniel Khalife
Inspired by Homeland
The court has heard Khalife initiated contact with Iranian intelligence officers after he was told he could not pass developed vetting because his mother was born in Iran.
Khalife told MI5 he wanted to be a “double agent” and he said in court he thought he would be “congratulated” but described his arrest as like a “punch in the face”.
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Wearing a blue checked shirt and chinos, he said police were “blinded at the prospect of a successful prosecution” but he did not think being in prison would be in “the public interest”.
“I didn’t do anything that harmed our national security. I wanted to put myself in a position where I could help my country,” he said.
“I believed I could continue my work actually located in the state – the state being Iran.”
Khalife said he took inspiration from watching Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, in which Americans and terrorists go undercover, on Netflix.
“I had seen one of the characters in the programme had actually falsely defected to a particular country and utilised that position to further the national security interests of that character’s country,” he said.
“The country in question, Iran, thought it was real. She did it to further the interests of her own country.”
Khalife told jurors he is a “patriot”, adding: “I do love my country. All I wanted to do was help. I never wanted to do any harm, I never did do any harm.”
He added: “It is tragic it has come to this and I would do anything to go back to my career.”
Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about Armed Forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.
The trial continues.
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