FOUR women alleged to have enjoyed luxury holidays in exotic resorts paid for using false credit card details have gone on trial.
Maidstone Crown Court heard that Nikki McKenna, Pauline Checksfield, Cheryl Dawson and Haley Donlon are said to be part of a gang which cheated holiday company Thomas Cook out of more than £200,000 by making 78 fraudulent bookings.
Destinations included Jamaica, the Maldives, the Greek islands of Zante and Corfu, and Disneyland, Paris.
Prosecutor Jonathan Higgs said the trips were all “five-star, top-of-the-range” and booked over the Internet.
“Not only were they expensive but often to all-inclusive resorts,” he explained to the jury. “Everything that could be paid for on a credit card, and paid for lavishly. There were upgrades upon upgrades upon upgrades. No expense spared here.”
The defendants were among the names of 44 holidaymakers booked fraudulently on a flight to Jamaica in October 2008 which was swooped on by police before it jetted out from Gatwick Airport.
Donlon, a hairdresser from Wordsworth Road, Maidstone, had already been to Jamaica just three months earlier on a trip costing more than £2,000.
On this occasion the 22-year-old was with her young son and told police she had paid £200 each for the second holiday, which had a true value of £3,500. She claimed she was going to make up the difference with free haircuts.
“You won’t need to look at the documents to know that this is a bargain for an all-inclusive holiday to Jamiaca,” Mr Higgs told the jury
The court heard that at the heart of the conspiracy was 62-year-old Checksfield’s daughter, Rachel Allgood.
Police went to her home at William Baker House, Aylesford, the same day they stopped the Jamaica flight. At the address were Dawson, 22, McKenna, of Pattenden Gardens, East Peckham, and other passengers who had been booked on the holiday but were not arrested at the airport.
Dawson, of Clive House, Royal British Legion Village, Aylesford, told police she paid £600 for her and her partner Matthew Allgood - Rachel Allgood’s brother. She said she did not know it had been booked fraudulently.
McKenna, 28, who is Checksfield grand-daughter, travelled more than the other three defendants on trial, the court was told.
In a prepared statement to police she claimed she was not part of any conspiracy and had no involvement with the booking of any of the holidays.
“She said she hadn’t done anything wrong and had never heard of Zante,” explained Mr Higgs.
Checksfield, of Howick Close, Royal British Legion Village, Aylesford, told police in December 2008 she had gone on one trip to EuroDisney but denied all knowledge of a second trip.
All four women deny conspiracy to commit fraud between April 1 2008 and July 27 2009. McKenna and Checksfield also deny defrauding Sainsburys by using false credit card details to purchase groceries online between October 1 2007 and July 31 2008.
The trial continues.