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.
