Home news in brief
Travel agent jailed for £2.6m fraud
A travel agent who pretended to family and customers that she had cancer as part of a £2.6m con was jailed yesterday for nine years. Lyne Barlow, 39, formerly of Stanley, County Durham, sold holidays around the world, conning more than 1,400 victims before her business crashed in September 2020. She even stole £520,000 from her mother, Susan Colman – following the death of her father in 2015 – after stealing her
financial identity, raiding her bank account and covering her tracks by diverting her mother’s mail.
To deflect blame when customers complained, she pretended to have cancer, convincing even her closest relatives. Barlow took steps to make them believe her, attending fake hospital appointments and even leaving hair on the bed to make it look as though it was falling out. Jailing her for nine years, Judge Jo Kidd said: “You have obviously presented yourself to those who knew you as a charming and engaging woman. You are clearly a woman of significant intellectual abilities but you have an extraordinary talent for dishonesty.”
In October she admitted frauds relating to loans, investments and holiday sales, and a money-laundering charge. The judge said the amount stolen over seven years was £2.6m, causing a loss of over £1.2m. Tony Davis, defending, said: “Lyne Barlow is a broken, beaten and penniless woman. She apologises to each and every victim and of course there are many.” Outside court Detective Sergeant Alan Meehan said: “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.”
‘Britain’s most wanted man’ to be released
A serial rapist, once labelled “Britain’s most wanted man”, is due to be released from jail despite an appeal from the justice secretary. The Parole Board has rejected an application from Dominic Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, to cancel the scheduled release of repeat offender Andrew Barlow. But the decision may be challenged through an appeal to the High Court. Barlow, 66, from Bolton in Lancashire, was jailed for life in 1988 with a minimum term of 20 years for 11 rapes, three attempted rapes and a range of other offences committed in the 1980s. The convict, formerly called Andrew Longmire, was found guilty of two further rapes in 2010 and in 2017, both committed during the 1980s.
Search for husband missing for a month
A woman whose husband of 22 years went missing over Christmas after going for a walk has issued a desperate appeal for information, saying: “I just want to know he’s okay.” Peter Baglin, a grandfather of four, disappeared on the evening of 28 December while taking “his favourite walk” along the Bridgewater Canalin Manchester. More than 200 people have since joined the search to find him, including divers and mountain rescue teams, after his mobile phone, hat and headphones were discovered on the towpath the following morning. But a month after his disappearance there are yet to be any positive sightings of him, according to Greater Manchester Police. “It’s a very surreal feeling,” said Mr Baglin’s wife, Michelle. “It’s like it’s happening, but it’s not happening to me. I never thought I would ever be in this position and I just want Pete home.”
Man guilty of posting threatening messages to Sturgeon
A man who made a social media post about the assassination of Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon was found guilty yesterday of threatening behaviour. William Curtis, 70, sent threatening messages to Ms Sturgeon on various occasions between 27 February and 6 March 2019. Curtis was also found guilty of sending or causing a threatening message to be sent to former MSP Stewart Stevenson on 9 March 2019. Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow also ruled that Curtis and another man, Philip Mitchell, 60, assaulted and abducted a sheriff in a car park in Banff, Aberdeenshire, in June 2021.
Curtis was found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner which was “likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm” by sending an email and posting messages on social media in which he made threatening remarks towards Ms Sturgeon on various occasions. All of the offences occurred in Aberdeenshire. Both men will be sentenced on 3 March at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Want your views to be included in The Independent Daily Edition letters page? Email us by tapping here letters@independent.co.uk. Please include your address
BACK TO TOP