Members of a gang that made millions of pounds from swindling thousands of holidaymakers were convicted yesterday of setting up one of Britain’s biggest tourism scams. The three men and a woman are believed to have made up to £12 million by taking reservations for holidays from at least 8,000 people via the internet and teletext, but never booking them, Southwark Crown Court was told.

Christakis Philippou, Peter Kemp, Evangela Liogka and Timothy Entwistle set up a call centre, hired professional website designers and offered massive discounts as they took money for numerous holidays between 2004 and 2006. The gang enjoyed the fruits of their crime: Entwistle, an undischarged bankrupt, lived in an 11-bedroom mansion near Yeovil, Somerset, while Philippou and Liogka lived together in a £2 million house in Kensington, Central London. While the gang jetted off on expensive holidays, hundreds of their victims were left stranded at airports when they turned up for unbooked flights.

The gang was exposed when customers rang airlines to check their flights after the alleged transatlantic bomb plot in August 2006, only to be told that there was no record of their bookings. They contacted trading standards and police, who raided the offices of Orange Sun Ltd and Sun Orient Ltd in North London.

The gang had paid £54,000 to set up the websites holidays4under200 pounds.com and sunmedresorts.com. They also paid Google £150,000 for advertising. Most holidaymakers who paid by cheque or debit card have not got their money back because the companies were not registered with the Association of Britain Travel Agents.

Victims of the scam included honeymooning couples, a seriously ill man who was taking his dream holiday, a couple celebrating their silver wedding anniversary and a woman on a surprise 50th birthday break organised by her children.

John Reynolds, the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, was conned twice after he booked two holidays through companies run by the gang, losing a total of £3,300.

Philippou, 64, and Entwistle, 57, were convicted of five charges of conspiring to defraud, and Liogka, 40, was found guilty of four counts. Kemp, 52, a former travel agent, had already pleaded guilty.

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