Twelve defendants sentenced for luxury holiday fraud

09/07/2010

Twelve men and women have been sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court today after being convicted of conspiring to commit fraud against Thomas Cook, local councils and other online and remote retailers.

A number of the defendants were arrested after 40 passengers on a flight bound for Jamaica were stopped after it had come to the attention of the Police that the all inclusive five star holidays that they were due to start had been paid for by fraudulent use of credit card numbers.

As the investigation unfolded it became clear that this was not an isolated incident. The same false details had been used repeatedly over the preceding year and over a quarter of a million pounds had been unlawfully obtained. All of the defendants had travelled on holidays paid for in this way, some of them many times and other frauds had been committed.

Crown Advocate Anthony Hill said:

"The defendants brazenly and relentlessly exploited what they thought was a loophole in the online booking system. No sooner than they had completed one trip they would jet off again to another luxury resort. None of the holidays was paid for, in whole or part. All were for luxury all inclusive holidays beyond their budgets and most of them had any identifiable source of income other than state benefits.

"All of the defendants joined in the fraud, but at its centre was Rachel Allgood who was involved in every type of fraud, the overall organizer and controller of the false credit card details."

The largest loss was the fraud committed against Thomas Cook, which involved all 12 defendants, but several of them were also responsible for defrauding local councils. They would deliberately and fraudulently use the same details to make council tax payments to different councils and obtain cash refunds in respect of overpayments. They obtained over £19,000 in total. Other minor frauds were carried out online for sports goods, car insurance and food shopping.

Rachel Allgood, 28, was sentenced to four and a half years;

Louise Allgood, 39, received a sentence of 24 weeks suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work;

Matthew Allgood, 31, received a sentence of 24 weeks suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work;

Nikki McKenna, 29, was sentenced to 24 weeks suspended for two years;

Jason McKenna, 41, was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment;

Pauline McKenna, 39, received a sentence of 24 weeks suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work;

Cheryl Dawson, 22, received a sentence of 24 weeks suspended for two years;

Tina Walkling, 46, received a community order for 12 months and unpaid work of 100 hours;

June Stacey, 44, was sentenced to a total of 10 months;

Clive Whyte, 48, received a sentence of 24 weeks suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work;

Norman Pooley, 45, was sentenced to 24 weeks suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work.