Emails reveal how crooked travel agent, 39, duped victims into thinking she had cancer
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A travel agent who faked cancer sent emails to her clients telling them she had “stage three” tumors growing inside her after they raised concerns about their holiday booking with her.
Lyne Barlow, 39, scammed more than 1,400 clients with her fake cancer story, using her fake illness to protect herself from a deluge of complaints from devastated families whose vacations didn’t materialize.
The travel agent, who was jailed at Durham Crown Court for nine years, received sympathetic emails from clients whom she tricked into thinking she was seriously ill.
After victims began reporting Barlow’s Christmas scams to authorities, there were so many calls to the police that they had to be directed to one email address because emergency calls would not have been able to get through.
In total, Barlow could be shown to have defrauded family, friends and clients of £1.2m, but investigators believe the total sum he earned over a five-year period, from 2015 to 2020, was £2.6m. millions.
Lyne Barlow, 39, told clients she was covered by insurance and a member of the trusted travel brand Association of British Travel Agents.
When one of his clients inquired about his existing reservation, Barlow replied that he had stage three cancer.
One of the victims deceived about Barlow’s cancer lie responded: “I’m so sorry to hear this, these are terrible times for you.” I’ll keep this to myself’
The emails showed how the dubious travel agent tricked her victims into thinking she was fighting cancer.
When asked about his existing reserve by one of his clients, Barlow replied that he had stage three cancer.
Barlow wrote: “Unfortunately, I just found out my cancer has spread and is stage 3/4, it’s in my bones and I need chemo on my spine to keep it from reaching my brain.”
It’s going to be pretty intense.
One of the victims deceived about Barlow’s cancer lie responded: “I’m so sorry to hear this, these are terrible times for you.” I’ll keep it to myself.
Another victim emails Barlow after not learning about her vacation reservation despite following up multiple times.
Barlow tells them that he wasn’t feeling well enough to work last week and missed successive emails from clients who were concerned about their impending vacation booking.
Another of Barlow’s concerned clients emails him to ask how his treatment is going and to ask why his flights haven’t been changed yet.
The travel agent, who was jailed at Durham Crown Court for nine years, received sympathetic emails from clients she tricked into thinking she was seriously ill.
Barlow tells one of the victims that she wasn’t well enough to work last week and missed successive emails from clients who were concerned about their impending vacation booking.
In September 2020, concerned customers began sharing their experiences on social media about botched vacations after booking with the 39-year-old’s business.
To deal with the sudden influx of calls about Christmas scams, Durham police directed victims to an email address for people to file their complaints and then created a team of 20 officers to follow up.
They recorded more than 450 crimes, involving around 1,400 victims, and became one of the largest fraud investigations in Durham Police history.
Detectives soon decided to arrest and interview the mother of two and even when officers went to her home in Stanley, County Durham, customers were knocking on her door trying to find out what had happened to their reservations and money.
Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan said: “The victims would show up at the house when she was arrested.
“Some were angry and worried, others were relatively sympathetic to her because she said she had cancer.”
The business, which operated largely on social media, had spiraled out of control after happy customers shared the fabulous vacations they had enjoyed at knockdown prices, deals that were unsustainably cheap.
So when people’s bookings fell through, flights had not been booked and some were even stranded abroad, the news spread just as quickly online, prompting a flurry of complaints to the police.
His operation angered many people who missed out on dream vacations for key birthdays, bridal showers, and even weddings.
There was an arson attack at her home, the address from which she ran her business, the night she was arrested, police said.
No one has been prosecuted for that crime.
Travel agent Lyne Barlow (left) arrives at Durham Crown Court to be sentenced for defrauding friends, family and hundreds of clients who bought her holidays in a £2.6 million scam
Lyne Barlow told her clients 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 her son and daughter that she was battling cancer.
Family members took her to hospital appointments, unaware that she was merely 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 spread them out on her pillow to make it look like she was losing it to chemotherapy.
When Barlow was arrested in 2020, she limped into the police station with her head wrapped in a scarf and walking with a cane.
Custody photos show a stark difference when she was arrested again a year later and forced to admit that her ‘stage 3/4’ cancer had been a fabrication.