The owner of a New Malden Christian tour operator who conned customers out of £26,000 by selling places on a religious Mediterranean cruise avoided jail today.
Robert Fleming, 62, of Selwyn Road, was given £26,000 after advertising a “bible lands cruise” as the owner of LivingSun Ltd and Kyrilios Ltd, but instead of booking the cruise invested the money into a Turkish hotel.
Fleming was given a 18 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and fined £15,000 at a sentencing at Kingston Crown Court today.
A second fine of £2,000 was imposed against his company Kyrilios.
Fleming was also suspended from trading as a director for ten years.
Previously: Owner of New Malden Christian tour operator in court over fraud charges
Previously: New Malden Christian tour operator guilty of fraud
During sentencing, Judge Paul Dodgson said: “You are an arrogant man Mr Fleming. I quite accept that when you started you were acting honestly, then for whatever reason you decided to invest in a hotel in Turkey - that was a disaster.
“This is where your arrogance took over. It’s quite clear to me as it was quite clear to the jury that you had decided at that point you were going to take the money.
“You abused the trust of your friends and customers. The world should be spared any possibility of you reappearing in that function.”
The court heard how 15 customers signed up for the holiday, which was advertised in January 2014 as a 10-day Mediterranean cruise to the biblical sites of the Colossus of Rhodes, Byblos in Lebanon and Jerusalem’s Garden of Gethsemane.
The cruise was due to take place in October of that year, but instead Fleming invested in a Turkish hotel and encouraged customers to stay there.
The company was reported to trading standards and all customers were eventually refunded.
Fleming, who represented himself in court, pleaded with the judge for a reduced sentence due to having to look after his wife, who was described as in “bad health”, his 91-year-old mother and his nephew, who he said suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder.
He also read letters to the court from customers who supported him once the accusations surfaced, with one saying he could “take heart from all the good holidays” he has organised and he could be “proud” of the job he did.
The letters were considered inadmissible during the trial.
He said: “First of all I really regret the whole circumstances of this. I sincerely regret all that.
“Really I’m shocked that a year career in travel has ended in this way - that is really hard to take. We have always tried to put clients first, I don’t believe we have stole the money.”
Fleming was convicted of two charges of fraudulent trading and one charge of engaging in practice on Monday, March 21, after a five day trial.
In a previous conviction in September 2010, Fleming admitted two counts of trading illegally by reusing a prohibited company name.
He was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court the following month and given a conditional discharge for two years.
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