Victims reveal how travel agent Lyne Barlow faked terminal cancer and stole millions in vacation scam

Shelley and Evan McAlpine have been at their most affordable ebb when, in February 2020, they determined to ebook a week’s getaway they thought could be their very last as a family members of 5.

At the time, the pair ended up reeling from the most devastating news imaginable, possessing figured out that their middle son, who experienced been born with a lifestyle-restricting incapacity, experienced only months to are living.

‘He’d just appear out of intense treatment, where we’d presently just about lost him,’ suggests Shelley, a 40-yr-old mom-of-three from County Durham. ‘We’d been explained to he didn’t have lengthy, so we resolved we desired to make some recollections for him and our other children. That’s when I picked up the telephone.’

On the other end of the line was regional journey agent Lyne Barlow, who came highly advised by a buddy who experienced applied her to e book visits all around the entire world.

Shelley and Evan’s requirements were being far more modest: limited by their son’s genetic issue, they preferred to guide a 7 days at Heart Parcs. ‘Lyne was great and so sympathetic, and stated she would acquire care of all the logistics,’ Shelley states. ‘She instructed me she would get all the stress absent — all we had to do was fork out and transform up.’

Alternatively, Barlow took £3,000 of the McAlpines’ difficult-gained savings, just before disappearing off the deal with of the earth.

Only following various weeks did the spouse and children master the despicable fact. Lyne Barlow was a con artist, one who experienced utilized a bogus journey agency to fund her personal lavish way of life.

In excess of the study course of just a 12 months, she still left extra than 1,400 consumers out of pocket in a rip-off totalling all-around £2.6 million.

Before this thirty day period, the Mail revealed that Barlow, 39, had been jailed for nine several years adhering to a court docket scenario which unravelled the comprehensive extent of her fraudulent pursuits.

Durham Crown Courtroom heard that, together with her ‘customers’, she experienced swindled her personal mother out of £500,000 — at one particular place leaving her on the verge of losing her home. She also lied about getting terminal bone cancer in order to deflect from her duplicity.

Her cynical exploitation led Judge Joanne Kidd to brand her a ‘thoroughly callous individual’ — a sentiment echoed by the victims the Mail spoke to, as we uncovered the remarkable tale of how a suburban mom-of-two grew to become a multi-million pound fraudster.

On paper, certainly, Lyne Barlow appeared an not likely criminal mastermind. She was born and raised in a middle-class region of Durham, alongside her sister, Lesley, and married her accountant partner, Paul, in her early 20s.

She had previously labored as a vacation agent, and she and her spouse and their two children lived in a modest semi-detached in Stanley, County Durham.

So far so everyday — until 2015, when, as Durham police Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan reveals, Lyne’s father, Barry, died abruptly at the age of 58, leaving her mom, Susan, in receipt of a variety of insurance coverage payouts.

‘Over a period of time, Lyne had positioned herself so that she had control in excess of her mother’s funds,’ he suggests. ‘She was getting frequent holiday seasons overseas she was possessing lavish get-togethers, which equated to about £600,000.’

Barlow’s manipulation of her mother’s finances also prolonged to her withholding Susan’s mail, despite the fact that she did get just one letter telling her that her mortgage was in arrears. When Susan broached the matter with her daughter, she explained to her it was a clerical mistake, before then faking a letter from the financial institution confirming her mother experienced a ‘nil balance’. ‘In point, she was in actual danger of obtaining her residence repossessed,’ DS Meehan reveals.

Barlow’s astonishing duplicity did not cease there: with her mother’s income quick running out, Lyne came up with a further ruse.

‘She launched the chance of people investing in her husband’s organization and obtaining shares, which would deliver dividends,’ suggests DS Meehan. ‘The corporation failed to have that option, it never existed.’

Nonetheless, she persuaded a neighbour to give her £24,000, whilst a mate handed over £100,000.

When individuals funds began to run low, Barlow realised she had a dilemma: everyone was starting to check with for returns on their investment.

‘That’s when she commenced with the vacation fraud, striving to get dollars liquidity,’ suggests DS Meehan.

Lyne Barlow Impartial Travel was registered with Providers Property in November 2019, and promptly gained a popularity as a valuable local support that had access to phenomenal bargains, frequently advertised by means of a group she had established up on Fb.

‘My supervisor at do the job instructed me he’d booked a getaway to Dubai with Lyne and received a excellent offer,’ recalls Daniel Hill, a 40-yr-old Nissan staff from Sunderland. ‘He paid £1,000 for him and his associate for 1 week, like flights and accommodations, which sounded awesome.’

Barlow had also appear very advised to Shelley. ‘One of my pals experienced travelled the entire world with Lyne,’ she states. ‘She experienced been to Dubai and the Caribbean on fantastic specials, and had just booked to go to Florida. She couldn’t converse hugely enough about her.’

In point, the law enforcement consider that Barlow was initially subsidising these apparently bargain breaks from the revenue she had stolen from friends, just before then employing subsequent deposits compensated by new incoming prospects to pay for other effective vacations — in influence, a Ponzi scheme.

Of training course, Barlow’s buyers were being oblivious to the scam. ‘I was a bit sceptical at initially,’ Daniel recollects. ‘Then I did a little bit of digging. She arrived up on Corporations Household and she appeared genuine.’

Reassured, in December 2019, he booked a £1,000 bundle to Dubai for a week the subsequent March with his educate guard spouse, Amy, also 40.

‘I paid in whole, then got an email affirmation with a business heading and an ATOL selection,’ he states.

Wowed by the deal, he also recommended it to his mother and father and in-rules, who booked it, way too. ‘So Lyne now had £3,000 from us,’ he claims.

A few months later on, it was Shelley’s switch to entrust her holiday plans to Barlow. In February 2020, her center son — then aged 6 and who she has questioned us not to title — experienced emerged from intense treatment, and medical professionals had instructed the relatives that he did not have lengthy to reside.

‘We have been devastated and just wanted to make his previous weeks the happiest we could,’ she suggests. Center Parcs was an evident decision, as it included no complicated vacation and experienced specifically tailored lodges for those with particular wants.

‘I requested Lyne if she could just take on the arrangements for a week’s holiday break as my head was spinning,’ Shelley remembers. ‘She termed back and explained she experienced managed to get an extraordinary deal: instead of £2,500 for one week, she could get us a fortnight for £3,000.

‘I was a little bit sceptical, but she was unbelievably empathetic, and convinced me it was the appropriate issue to do — definitely, she performed on my vulnerability, and I did not question her credibility for the reason that of my friend’s recommendation.’

Shelley compensated in whole for the trip — thanks to consider place later on that month — and when, a week later, she experienced still not received a receipt she chased it up.

‘Lyne replied expressing, ‘My mistake, I’ll get it to you straight absent,’ but then a further week went by, so I messaged her all over again,’ Shelley remembers.

This time, she been given a receipt hooked up to an email. The doc made up of just Shelley’s title, the Centre Parcs emblem and the volume she had compensated.

‘It didn’t have any of her business aspects on it, no registered deal with — anyone could have typed it. I emailed back again, saying that I did not indicate to be rude, but it didn’t search like an official scheduling. Then, when I asked for even further affirmation, she stopped replying to any of my messages,’ suggests Shelley.

‘I contacted my mate and questioned if all was Okay with her impending journey to Florida, and uncovered that Lyne was not returning her phone calls possibly. Then, a handful of days later on, she called me and told me Lyne been arrested for fraud.’

A devastated Shelley burst into tears. ‘It was not the holiday, but the truth that she understood my globe experienced fallen aside, and she still felt equipped to do this to me,’ she claims. ‘The children had their bags packed and I had to demonstrate they could not go. They ended up devastated.’

A handful of miles away, Daniel Hill was one particular of the hundreds digesting the news that he had been ripped off, also. His March 2020 getaway to Dubai experienced been postponed due to Covid, but when, later on the similar 12 months, it turned crystal clear that journey limitations could continue being for various months, he requested for his dollars back again. ‘I contacted Lyne, who said she could get the money back again, but that she’d bought cancer and was receiving procedure, so it may well acquire for a longer time,’ he remembers.

It was a tale Barlow was sharing with numerous of her customers in a determined bid to acquire additional time. ‘It’s stage 3/4 in my bones and will need to have chemo place into my backbone to stop it from obtaining to my mind,’ she wrote to 1 who inquired no matter if her holiday was even now going in advance. She also deceived family members associates, asking for lifts to bogus hospital appointments, as properly as chopping her hair and leaving it on her pillow to propose it had fallen out because of to chemotherapy.

Daniel was among people to experience sorry for her. ‘I didn’t stress her also significantly,’ he claims. ‘But following a number of weeks, I emailed her and she explained she’d been in medical center, which is why she hadn’t replied.

‘At that position, I started performing some investigating and observed a variety of Fb posts inquiring about her. The sheer selection of people manufactured me realise I would been ripped off — and that my parents and in-rules experienced, far too.’

Even individuals who did make it overseas have been conned, with numerous still left stranded after discovering their return flights failed to exist — or that their resort booking was not quite what it appeared. Between them was Paul Shares, 42, who runs a garden upkeep company from his house in Chester-Le-Road.

He experienced booked a 5-star, all-inclusive golfing holiday break to Turkey for his spouse, Elizabeth, and two other couples for £7,000, not very long before Lyne was arrested.

‘We all experienced some time off at the start out of September 2020, and so we arranged some thing very last-moment,’ he recollects. ‘We booked on Monday to depart on the Friday.’

The holiday break got off to a rocky start out when the partners received an e mail telling them their flight experienced been moved back again a working day — and was now departing from Manchester alternatively of Newcastle.

‘One of my friends went to see Lyne at dwelling. She was donning a cancer bandana and mentioned she experienced experienced therapy that early morning,’ Paul recalls. ‘She apologised profusely and stated she would get us into the business enterprise lounge.’

Seemingly, as fantastic as her term, the partners arrived at Manchester airport to come across they have been without a doubt booked into the lounge, although the luxury resort in close proximity to Antalya they had booked was each little bit as impressive as billed.

That is, until day four, when the social gathering was summoned to the resort manager’s business office and explained to that, while they had been booked in for 14 nights, Barlow experienced only paid out for 3. In order to remain for the duration, they needed to pay an extra £2,800 for every couple.

‘We didn’t have that sort of revenue,’ Paul recalls. Following frantic cell phone calls to establish what was going on, by 8pm that night time they identified by themselves correctly homeless. ‘We were miles from home and basically failed to know what to do, as a whole lot of spots had been shut thanks to Covid,’ claims Paul.

They had been saved by a type-hearted expat who made available them an apartment right up until they could get house 6 times later on the most inexpensive flight they could discover. ‘Lyne instructed us she would e-mail our return boarding passes, but that failed to take place,’ says Paul.

By then the party understood Barlow experienced been arrested. She arrived at Durham law enforcement station for questioning sporting a scarf and going for walks with a crutch, however trying to maintain she experienced most cancers.

Her façade before long buckled and she wept as, under police questioning, she claimed she could not snooze since of her guilt at what she experienced set people by means of. ‘I have to endure for what I have carried out to people today,’ she sobbed.

Her tears proved to be minimal in the way of mitigation for Judge Kidd who, jailing her for nine many years, advised her she experienced ‘an extraordinary talent for dishonesty’. She extra: ‘The extent of the betrayal of your mother is really spectacular.’

DC Ali Blackett, who worked on the case, says Lyne’s mom, Susan, remains devastated at her daughter’s betrayal. Other victims, meanwhile, are however battling to recognize Barlow’s callous disregard for their circumstances.

‘Despicable’ is the word Shelley utilizes nowadays. Her son has defied expectations by surviving therefore much, but the family members know that time is managing out.

‘To exploit a person at a time like that, it is the most affordable of the low,’ says Shelley, adding that she uncertainties Barlow is genuinely sorry. DC Ali Blackett agrees: ‘She said she was remorseful — but she is a fraudster and fraudsters lie.’