Mum one of eight Brits charged over £9.5million holiday sickness scam

25 January 2023 , 21:21

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Spanish police arrested several and seized computers in Majorca during the massive operation (Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

A mum and her brother are among eight Brits who have been charged over a Spanish holiday food poisoning scam.

The gang allegedly cost three Majorca hotels £9.5million by convincing tourists to make bogus compensation claims.

An investigating court named the two suspected ringleaders as Laura Joyce, 42, and brother Marc Cameron.

In a six-page ruling, the court in Majorca said the siblings formed a “profit-motivated organised gang” that operated in 2016 and 2017.

The pair face trial along with five people – Simon Flanagan, Tegan Summerlee, 27, Susan Lyle, 58, Nicola Sanderson and Peter Murphy, 37 – who they allegedly hired to convince tourists to make fake claims.

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An eighth person, UK-based businessman Ryan Bridge, is accused of processing the food poisoning claims.

Laura Joyce arriving at court (SOLARPIX.COM)

All the suspects are accused of fraud and membership of a criminal gang.

Spanish authorities say the gang pocketed fees from people who received compensation after returning to the UK.

Over 800 tourists made claims against one of the hotels, with just 38 of them needing genuine medical assistance, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors are set to submit indictments ahead of a future trial.

Laura Holmes Cameron, who was the ringleader of the operation, Spanish police say (SOLARPIX.COM)

A modelling pictured of the suspected fraudster (SOLARPIX.COM)

Essex-born mum-of-three Joyce – charged under her maiden name of Cameron – denied her part in the alleged scam when asked by local media after her arrest in 2017 when she was preganat.

Joyce, who lives in a luxury villa in Majorcan village Bendinat, owned the Playhouse bar in nearby Magaluf, which hit the headlines when a British tourist was filmed performing sex acts on 24 men for cheap drinks in 2014.

Cameron's villa in Majorca where she was arrested (SOLARPIX.COM)

Cameron and her mum, Debbie (SOLARPIX.COM)

Police are said to have raided the Heroes Sports Bar in Portals Nous near Bendinat at the time of her arrest.

Three members of a British family were jailed in 2021 for four months for submitting false illness claims against Jet2holidays Canary Islands holiday.

Gerard Couzens