One day in September 2020, call handlers at Durham Constabulary's control room were being bombarded by calls.
Receiving numerous calls was nothing new, but handlers soon realised those who were ringing up were complaining about the same person: Lyne Barlow. The 39-year-old mother-of-two had been making a name for herself in Stanley, County Durham, by providing cut-price holidays to exotic locations such as Dubai, the USA, the Maldives and Asia.
The cheap holidays seemed too good to be true, and customers began snapping up her deals, with many booking trips for honeymoons, birthdays and even a wedding. But rumours soon began circulating on social media that her company, Lyne Barlow Independent Travel, had been selling holidays that either didn’t exist or hadn’t been fully paid for.
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It then transpired that Barlow had even been stealing from friends and took over £500,000 from her own mother, including squandering her NHS pension worth thousands. On Friday, Barlow appeared at Durham Crown Court where she was jailed for nine years after admitting 10 charges of fraud, one charge of theft and one charge of concealing, converting, and transferring criminal property.
Stealing from her mother
Barlow's offending began following the death of her father in 2015. She then decided to steal £520,000 from her own mother by taking over her financial identity. She also dissipated her mother's entire NHS pension and redirected her post and bank statements. As Barlow drained her mother's cash, she also asked for loans from various other friends.
At one point, Barlow even tricked her mother into believing she was investing money into her husband's company, and at one point told her she was a millionaire - which she never was. As the money she stole from her mother slowly reduced, Barlow decided to set up her own business as a travel agent, and began defrauding holidaymakers and other friends. The total amount of Barlow's fraudulent activity totalled £1.2m.
Calls to the control room
Barlow's downfall began on September 10, 2020, when dozens of calls suddenly started coming into Durham Constabulary’s Control Room. The situation was causing unprecedented demand on call handlers, and on an early assessment, an unusual step was taken to direct complainants to an email address, which was quickly set up to deal with what was happening.
This prevented the control room being overrun and prevented any emergency calls from being delayed. Durham Constabulary’s Economic Crime Unit were alerted to what was happening and the team knew instantly that there was potentially something significant going on.
There are generally five members of the team, led by Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan, who deal with complex frauds that come into the force. However, a 20-strong team was drafted in from other departments for a short period to help log all the complaints being called in. Once contact details were taken from all the victims, a decision was made that a survey would be used to acquire the key information needed from each complainant.
The survey took time to set up but once organised, a link to an online survey was sent out. This allowed officers to work closely with analysts, to pull the data together, allowing them to start piecing together what had happened. The investigation focussed on those people who had lost money because of Barlow’s actions
Operation Wentletrap
As the police investigation into the holiday fraud gained traction, Operation Wentletrap was launched. Lyne Barlow Independent Travel was operational between November 2019 and September 2020, and more than 450 fraud-related crimes were recorded, with approximately 1,400 victims.
The fraud is believed to be in the region of £1.2m, making it one of Durham Constabulary’s biggest ever fraud investigations. The investigation was led by Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan and Detective Constable Ali Blackett, who has since retired from policing.
Unravelling the fraud
Initially, there were up to 20 people involved in recording all the reports of crime that came in, but the investigation was predominantly carried out by a team of five officers over an 18-month period. Barlow offered holidays to destinations both in the UK and across the world.
Victims were kept up to date via email, which ensured everyone got the same information at the same time. The force social media accounts were used to provide reassurance that emails were genuinely from Durham Constabulary. Contact details were always provided with each update to ensure victims could speak to someone at any time should they wish.
Hundreds of hours were spent collating holiday details from victims, speaking to banks and travel companies trying to unravel the scam and create a timeline of what had happened and when. Within days of the first calls, officers arrested Barlow.
The Cancer lie
When Barlow was arrested, she claimed to have cancer and wore a headscarf and walked using the aid of a walking stick. However on being brought into custody, she eventually admitted that this was a lie. Barlow's cruel lie was so convincing, even family members believed she was ill, and some had even dropped her off at hospital for bogus appointments.
She went to such lengths, she even began cutting her own hair and leaving it on her bed, fooling her family into believing it was falling out due to her cancer treatment. Food shopping would also be washed on the doorstep to try and minimise the risk of catching Covid-19, which she claimed would not impact on her supposed cancer treatment.
More victims
Barlow was then bailed and the investigation continued. Officers then updated her family on the situation, including telling them she did not have cancer. But information then started coming in that Barlow had borrowed money from several people and encouraged others to invest savings or pension pay outs. The team had to go through hundreds of documents to gather the relevant information to piece the case together.
Barlow was arrested again in July 2021, and during interviews she admitted offences relating to loans and investment fraud, together with the holiday scam. The Crown Prosecution Service gave the go-ahead to charge Barlow at the start of 2022.
Barlow 'acted with greed'
Following her sentencing, James Lewis, of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Barlow acted with greed, using false promises and deceptive lies, to convince family and friends, as well as hundreds of customers, who all trusted her, to part with their money so that she could sustain her own lavish lifestyle.
“Fraud is an insidious crime and the cost to the many victims in this case has not just been financial; it has also caused huge emotional distress and extreme disappointment to devastated customers who had to find out their holiday did not actually exist at a time when the country was in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Thanks to the thorough investigation by Durham Police and to all the victims who came forward to report her, we were able to bring Barlow to justice. We will now be taking steps to recover this money taken through Proceeds of Crime.”
'Horrendous crime'
Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan, of Durham Constabulary’s Economic Fraud Unit, who led the investigation, said: “Fraud is a horrendous crime and Barlow’s actions were appalling. She made a conscious and deliberate decision to do what she did. There were points at which she could have put a stop to it all, but she carried on and now she is now paying the price for her actions.
“Sadly, so many people have been affected by what she did, lives have been changed forever and some will never be the same again. Not only did Barlow offer holidays she could not deliver, but she also took advantage of the generosity and understanding of those around her, which has resulted in such far-reaching consequences.
“She wanted a quality of life she could not afford, which resulted in her defrauding her family, friends, and even complete strangers.
“This is one of the biggest fraud cases Durham Constabulary has ever dealt with and I would like to again thank everyone who came forward for their patience and understanding while we carried out what was a thorough but lengthy investigation.”
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