A travel agent who tried to sell his house in Cornwall after conning Christian holidaymakers out of £26,000 worth of booking fees for a Bible Lands Cruise avoided jail today.
Bob Fleming, 62, used fees meant for securing berths on the ship Thomson Spirit to invest in a Turkish hotel which he then encouraged his customers to stay at.
The boss of LivingSun Holidays, was found guilty at trial last month on two counts of fraudulent trading and one count of failing to provide evidence of a security while director of another company Kyrilios Limited.
Today at Kingston Crown Court he was given an 18 month prison sentence suspended for two years, fined £2,000, and disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.
The travel agent, with 30 years experience, specialised in Christian holidays and in 2014 advertised a 10-day Mediterranean cruise in October of that year.
The trip would start in Turkey sailing to the Colossus of Rhodes, Byblos in Lebanon and Jerusalem's Garden of Gethsemane, which would be led by bible experts including himself.
However after political tensions in the Gaza Strip led to a change to the itinerary, customers began starting to ask for refunds.
As part of the investigation trading standards officers found 15 customers had paid him a total of £26,000.
He never paid or confirmed bookings for the cruise with Thomson Holidays and invented reasons why there had been delays in the paying of refunds.
Eventually two weeks before the trip he cancelled, on the basis of an "unsatisfactory itinerary".
The court heard refunds were eventually paid to all but one of his customers, who was awaiting a pay-out from their insurer.
In his sentencing Judge Paul Dodgson said: "You had had a number of successful holidays organised to the Middle East and you proposed to coordinate a new one in October of 2014.
"I quite accept when it all started you were acting honestly. Then you decided for whatever reason to invest in a hotel in Turkey. That was a disaster.
"This is where your arrogance took over. You had available £26,000 your friends and customers had given you to go on this cruise.
"You didn't send it to Thomson, you didn't pay it into an account to be sent to Thomson, because you knew better."
He put the money into his Turkish hotel investment, and even offered his customers the chance to invest in it.
The judge added: "You abused the trust of your friends and customers. You did it at the start and throughout the summer of 2014, and you knew it.
"It was you, and as the jury found, you acted dishonestly and fraudulently and told blatant lies to cover it up.
"By the winter of 2014 you had realised that the situation was beyond repair as far as the holidays were concerned."
The court heard by December of that year Kingston trading standards were investigating, and he had tried to sell his two homes in Cornwall and his family home in New Malden.
The judge said: "The reason you stated to put your houses on the market, was the hope that by paying the money you might be able to persuade Kingston Trading Standards not to prosecute you."
Fleming, who represented himself in court said the two companies were "worthless" and he had his wife had sold their two houses to try and clear around £800,000 worth of debts.
Addressing the judge he said: "I want to say I regret the whole circumstance of this.
"I am shocked a 30 year career in travel has ended in this way. It is hard to take, but that is what I have to face up to."
He also read letters from previous customers offering their support.
He told the court he was the main support for his 90-year-old mother and his wife, and should he be sent to prison, they would lose that support.
The court also heard in 2010 he was given a conditional discharge for trading illegally under a prohibited company's name.
Today Fleming was given an 18 month sentence, which was suspended for two years, for each count of fraudulent trading to run concurrently.
Kyrilios LTD, of which Fleming was a director, was fine £2,000 for engaging in misleading commercial practice, which he must pay in six months.
He was also order to pay £15,000 for the costs of the prosecution and also disqualified from acting as a director of a company for 10 years.
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