Richard Lester, 56, ran a website selling people vouchers and listing the cruises for which they could supposedly be exchanged at discounted rates.
However, in the vast majority of cases, Lester’s company didn’t actually book their cruises, with some only finding out when they turned up at their departure port where they were turned away by their cruise operator.
He also roped in a number of unsuspecting "agents" – victims who had sunk thousands into his scam and would earn commission by selling more miles to more unsuspecting customers.
Lester came to police attention in 2013 after suspicions were raised about his Cruisevoucher business, which he set up in 2009 and later rebranded as Cruisemiles.
Neither Lester, nor his fraudulent enterprise, is in any way affiliated with ROL Cruise’s long-standing Cruise Miles loyalty programme, Readers Offers Ltd has stressed.
Some 184 victims were identified in the months and years that followed, hailing variously from the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and Japan. Together, they lost £402,540.29.
Lester, of Swifts Green Road in Luton, who previously went by several aliases including Henry Lester, Les Richards, Richie Lescovitch, Barry Williams – even "Lord Lester" – was found guilty late last year and was on Tuesday (11 February) sentenced to five years in prison following a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court.
PC Leanne Smith from Essex Police, who has been investigating Lester’s activities since 2014, said the impact for some of the victims of Lester’s offending was ongoing to this day.
"The financial cost for victims was into the thousands of pounds, which Lester frittered away to support his own lifestyle," said Smith. "Despite the years of work by the force and the mounting number of people coming forward to accuse him, he refused to accept his guilt.
"Despite Lester’s efforts to cover his tracks, we showed he was using multiple bank accounts to move his victims’ money, but it all ultimately remained in his control."
