A holidaymaker who was told to leave his hotel just three days into a two-week break in Turkey has told how he was scammed by a notorious North-East travel fraudster.

Paul Stocks paid over £2,000 to Lyne Barlow, from Stanley, but was stunned when the manager told him his stay had not been paid for.

His ordeal became part of a massive fraud investigation into 39-year-old Barlow, with hundreds of victims who had collectively lost nearly a million pounds.

Barlow, who stole from her own mother and even faked having cancer to evade justice, was ultimately imprisoned for nine years earlier this year. 

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The Northern Echo: Lyne Barlow pretended to have cancer as the net closed in on her Lyne Barlow pretended to have cancer as the net closed in on her (Image: Contributor)

In the latest episode of the series, The Big Swindle, which tells the stories of the most brazen and ruthless con artists and the victims they preyed on, Paul reveals how he was scammed out of over £2,000, along with his group of friends, on dream golfing trip to Turkey.

In the episode, which aired on Saturday on the Quest Red television channel, Paul, from Chester-le-Street, explained how he learnt they had been scammed.

He said: “The manager actually took us into his office and he was saying: ‘you have only been booked into three nights of your fourteen nights.’

“We were like: ‘this isn’t possible, we’ve got booking confirmation saying fourteen nights’ so the manager said: ‘that’s fake documentation, that’s not what we use for this hotel.’

“The manager said: ‘but don’t worry, you can just stay here for the duration of the holiday but we want £2,800 per couple.’”

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The Northern Echo: The Big Swindle, Quest Red and Discovery The Big Swindle, Quest Red and Discovery (Image: The Big Swindle, Quest Red and Discovery+)

Remembering his horror at the hotel manager’s suggestion, Paul went on to say: “That’s not possible; you need to ring your head office to try and get this sorted’.

“He said he will ring the head office and see what he can do but he came back and said: ‘no, there is nothing we can do.

“You’ve got two choices; you can pay this money or you are going to have to leave the hotel.’

“We were going: ‘there is no way we are paying this. We have paid our money; we’ve worked hard for this holiday and we cannot afford to give you any more money’ so we had no choice but to leave the hotel.”

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Paul and his friends got talking to some ex-pats in a restaurant who helped secure accommodation for the rest of the stay but they then discovered their return flights had not been paid for either.

It was while they were stranded other disgruntled holiday-makers set up a Facebook page to share of their travel disasters and the net began to close in on Barlow.

The documentary also features a devastated couple who were sent on a 500-mile wild goose chase with their two young children after booking a non-existent barge.

Barlow, a mother-of-two, left more than 1,400 customers out of pocket when she failed to book trips between 2019 and 2020.

She admitted stealing £500,000 from her mother, 10 counts of fraud and a money laundering charge involving £1.6m.

The episode is available for subscribers to the Discovery+ streaming service here