How holiday scam snared thousands

By Yannick Guerry BBC News

The gang pocketed �7m in three years

Four people convicted of a �6m holiday fraud have been jailed for between seven and three years. But how were they able to cheat thousands of holidaymakers out of millions of pounds?

In October 2004 the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, John Reynolds, paid Ciao Travel �500 for a break in Gerona, Spain. Within weeks the company had disappeared.

When investigators from the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) visited its premises, they found an abandoned office.

Mr Reynolds was one of 2,035 would-be holidaymakers conned by the company out of a total of �1.8m.

But, unfortunately for Mr Reynolds, it was not the last time he would fall victim to a scam by the same group of four fraudsters.

THE FRAUDULENT FIRMS Ciao Travel, trading under the name Sun [2004] - 2,035 victims, losses �1.8m Onshine, trading under the name Sunsplash [2005] - losses �1.8m Grayrise Associates, trading under the name Elite Travel [2005] - losses �1.7m Orange Sun Ltd, trading under the names holidays4under200pound.com, unbeatableholidays.com [2006] - losses �620,000 Sun Orient, trading under the name sunmed-resorts.com [2006] - no losses as police action taken

The following year he saw an advert for the firm Onshine Ltd and paid �2,800 for a sunshine vacation in Heraklion, Greece.

Onshine turned out to be another of the gang's bogus operations, which saw Mr Reynolds stung for a second time.

"Twice bitten unfortunately," prosecutor Martin Edmunds QC told London's Southwark Crown Court.

Martin Roxburgh, 50, and his wife, from Portsmouth, were also victims of the gang's scam. They flew to Cyprus only to be branded "illegal immigrants" when their hotel booking did not show up.

Behind the bogus companies were Christakis Philippou, 64, and his 40-year-old girlfriend Evangela Liogka, both of west London, along with 57-year-old Timothy Entwistle, of Lulworth, Dorset, and Peter Kemp, 54, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.

Together the gang set up front firms and offered breaks online or through Teletext during the summer season only to fold them after taking scores of bookings.

Between 2003 and 2006 they lured an estimated 20,000 victims by offering cut-price deals and set a cut-off date for each company to crash, leaving the travel industry and credit card companies to pick up the �6m bill.

The gang would buy a travel company, retaining the original owner as a consultant and using others as the named director of the company, ensuring none of them was named on the board, allowing them to continue trading.

Behaviour patterns

During the trial the court heard Philippou was at the "centre of the action", helped by his partner Liogka who was "effectively overseeing" the agencies' call centres.

Entwistle handled the financial aspects of the business and helped start the companies while Kemp managed the businesses.

These were ordinary, honest people who were entitled to expect what they had paid for Judge Andrew Goymer

Judge Andrew Goymer said all four had taken part in "what I can only describe as a cynical and greedy fraud".

He said: "Unlike many frauds, such as advance fee frauds, these were not people duped into get-rich-quick schemes. These were ordinary, honest people who were entitled to expect what they had paid for.

"None of these holidaymakers could be said to have brought what happened on themselves or to be in any way to blame for what happened."

Judge Goymer said it would be "idle" to think they were victimless crimes, and they attracted people with limited budgets who needed cheap holidays.

The four were convicted of conspiracy to defraud, although Liogka was cleared on one count.

Philipou was sentenced to seven years, Liogka to three-and-a-half years, Entwistle three years and Kemp four-and-a-half years.

Abta says it began to investigate after recognising "certain patterns of behaviour" when the second of the gang's two Abta-registered firms went out of business.

Vague paperwork

It says it has reimbursed customers of those two companies - Ciao Travel and Grayrise Associates - but said there were ways holidaymakers could help protect themselves.

An Abta spokesman said: "It is one of the few industries where you pay upfront before seeing the product. If the holiday is significantly cheaper that could be a warning sign."

Holidaymakers are also advised to ensure details of the tour operator are made clear when booking a trip.

According to Abta, if a company is vague on the paperwork, it could also be a warning "things are not quite right".

Abta advises holidaymakers they can reduce their chances of becoming a victim of fraud by following some simple advice:

Teletext said tackling and preventing fraudulent activity was of the "utmost importance" to it and that it hoped the convictions would serve as a warning that they would not tolerate such activities.

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