British expat faces prison for 10M Mallorca food poisoning scam
The UK woman and her brother convinced tourists to make false claims against three Mallorca hotels
The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation is demanding Essex-born pub owner Laura Joyce, 44, spend six and a half years behind bars for convincing hundreds of Magaluf tourists to file false food poisoning complaints in order to claim compensation. The mum-of-three and her brother Marc are accused of masterminding the scam between 2016 and 2017 that cost the three hotels in question upwards of 10 million euros.
Six other Brits, named as Ryan Bridges, Simon Robert Flanagan, Tegan Jewel Sumerlee, Susan Amanda Lyle, Nicola Marie Sanderson, and Peter Carl Murphy, have been arrested for their part in the swindle and they all face prison terms if convicted of aggravated fraud and belonging to a criminal gang.
Police believe Laura used her Spanish registered company Elite Project Marketing SL as a front for the organisation, which hired middle men to encourage holidaymakers to lodge the false claims and UK-based businesses to process them.
The indictment issued by the Mallorca courts said: "The gang specialised in obtaining the details of British tourists in all-inclusive hotels in Majorca it convinced, through a form they themselves elaborated, to falsely claim they had been ill during their stay in one of those hotels and be able to claim compensation in the UK."
After she was initially arrested in 2017, Laura’s lawyer admitted his client had passed the names and personal details of several holidaymakers to a third party, but insisted that this was purely for market research purposes.
The controversy surrounding the expat didn’t stop there, however, as it soon emerged that her Magaluf bar ‘Playhouse’ had been sanctioned after a fellow Brit was filmed performing sex acts on 24 male customers for free drinks back in 2014.
No date has yet been set for the trial but it’s expected to take place early next year.
Image: Freepik
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