The jailing of fraudulent travel agent Lyne Barlow has led to calls for the sector to significantly step up its fight against crime.
Travel businesses have been urged to work more closely through the industry’s existing fraud database and develop strategies to prevent online scams.
Barlow was this week sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty last October at Durham Crown Court to charges of fraud and money laundering totalling about £1.2 million.
According to police, Barlow set up her own business, Lyne Barlow Independent Travel, in November 2019. She gained a reputation for cut‑price deals, selling holidays through Facebook and Instagram.
Barlow, who pretended to have terminal cancer and stole £500,000 from her own mother, left more than 1,400 holidaymakers out of pocket or stranded after failing to book their trips.
She had previously worked as an InteleTravel agent from September to November 2019 under the same business name. Barlow’s membership of InteleTravel was terminated within two months after its head office was contacted by one of her customers.
Collaboration call
Barry Gooch, chairman of anti-fraud group Profit, said: “Lyne Barlow is an example of how the industry can work together and, with Profit, stop fraudsters.”
But he admitted the industry could not rely solely on police to catch criminals and called for more firms to sign up to the Travel Industry Intelligence Hub, which keeps a log of confirmed fraudsters.
He said: “Due to police funding cuts, the cavalry will not be riding over the hill to help defrauded agents any time soon. It is everyone’s duty to work together to reduce the risk of fraud for customers, themselves and the industry. We need as many people to come on board as possible to reduce the risks for the industry and get action taken against organised and serial criminals.”
Watch: Police remove Lyne Barlow’s headscarf in custody suite:
InteleTravel, which now plans to rejoin the intelligence hub, was among those to call for the industry to take more action.
UK director Tricia Handley-Hughes said: “It’s the right time because of the economic climate. There has to be a collective effort to work closer.
“Until you become a victim, as we did, you don’t realise how important sharing intelligence is.”
She added: “The first thing we heard was a customer chasing a confirmation. That’s when we found the customer had paid £4,000 for a holiday but not received any paperwork.”
She stressed InteleTravel, which alerted Action Fraud and liaised with Durham Police, vetted members, but said Barlow had no criminal record and was not on anybody’s database.
Vigilance needed
The Advantage Travel Partnership warned there was “no silver bullet to wipe out crime tomorrow” but said firms and consumers needed to be vigilant about buying and selling via social media.
Chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said: “No one should be rethinking their social media strategy but there are mitigating strategies to be put together. We all need to work smarter as businesses and consumers.”
Listen: Calls made to Police by victims of Lyne Barlow:
The Travel Network Group was hopeful Barlow’s case would help prevent future fraud in travel.
Stephanie Slark, director of membership services, said: “We need to demonstrate that there are accountabilities, and this goes a long way as a deterrent.”
She said the group was fully behind Profit’s intelligence hub, adding: “We have rigorous processes in place, to check our members’ compliance and potential risks arising. We have an operations team who run our monitoring processes on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, and we also monitor customer and supplier feedback as part of ongoing monitoring.”
Agent reaction
Agents had mixed views on the damage of Barlow’s fraud on the industry.
Melanie Robson, owner of Mel’s Travel, said: “Because Lyne Barlow was working in our area, it has affected the agents in County Durham the worst. We’ve seen comments from customers saying that they would not use an independent agent again. We’ve still had some bookings in the shop but none on social media or through our website. I would compare the number of enquiries in the past week with the quietest November or December that we’ve had.”
But agents not based in the area felt the case was unlikely to have lasting damage.
Kate Harris said: “Everyone knows there are ‘bad apples’ in every industry and if you put it in context, this is one agent out of all of those in the UK.”
Chris Bailey, of Bailey’s Travel, agreed, adding: “If anything this will benefit those of us with bricks and mortar agencies and undermine online agents.”
More: InteleTravel says ‘no warning signs’ during vetting process