Travel agent spared jail after £32k fraud
A trusted travel agent who ripped off customers in a £32,000 fraud has walked free from court.
Lisa Akenhead, 49, took cash from customers at Holiday TVL, aka Safari Travel, in Station Road, Hetton, but did not pay for the trips that it had booked.
As a result, 14 families, who had paid sums ranging between £700 and £4,100 for their getaways, were left at home.
At Newcastle Crown Court, Akenhead, of Lambton Drive, Hetton, pleaded guilty to 15 fraud offences, totalling £32,279 between April 2016 and early 2017.
Prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court the police became involved in late 2016 after Sunderland Trading Standards received complaints from customers about holidays they had paid for in full being cancelled due to non-payment.
Akenhead, who took over the 50-year family business, which she falsely advertised as being protected by the Association of British Travel Agents, after her father retired, admitted she had used clients’ monies to keep the struggling firm afloat.
Mr Bunch told the court: “The defendant was responsible, on a number of occasions, for taking cash payments from clients of the business, but not using them towards the holiday which the clients presumed they were booking.
“Deposits were, on occasion, paid for holidays, but the final balance was not and that led to the cancellation of those holidays which the customers expected to take.”
Mr Bunch told the court Akenhead has paid £27,216 back to the customers, with each family receiving about 80% back of what they paid.
Judge Robert Spragg sentenced Akenhead to 15 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with rehabilitation requirements.
Judge Spragg said Akenhead knew the business was in trouble and added: “You were effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul, using customers’ money to pay for other customers’ holidays, thinking things would improve but they didn’t, they all came crashing down.”
Vic Laffey, defending, said: “Money wasn’t coming in quick enough to pay the balance on holidays that had already been booked, where deposits had been paid, so she was therefore using money which then came in for new holidays to pay the balance on the ones that had already been booked and deposits had been paid.”
Mr Laffey said Akenhead has a history of health problems and the family home was sold to pay back money.