A glamorous mother of three faces up to eight years in a hellish Spanish prison when she is convicted of a massive holiday food poisoning scam.
Laura Holmes Cameron can expect one of the harsher sentences from the group of eight Britons if she is found to be the instigator of the alleged scam.
The 43-year-old Essex-born expat describes himself on social media as an entrepreneur who now works in travel and commerce, turning passions into paychecks.
She was charged this week with fraud and membership in a criminal gang following a long-running investigation and police arrests in Mallorca in September 2017.
Laura Holmes Cameron, the Essex-born owner of an infamous Magaluf bar, is now on trial
Well-placed insiders told MailOnline yesterday that the type of fraud she is accused of – serious fraud – carries a maximum prison sentence of six years in Spain and a maximum prison sentence of two years for the second charge.
One said, “She will probably wait five to eight years if convicted of both crimes. That’s probably the kind of punishment prosecutors will demand.”
The magistrate who charged Laura, under her maiden name rather than her married name Joyce, in a six-page written ruling accused her of “leading the profit-oriented organized gang” with her brother Marc Cameron Grimstead through a Spanish company called Elite Project Marketing SL.
Palma-based Maria Perez Ruiz also accused the pair of hiring accomplices who were paid on commission to get British tourists on the holiday island to make false food poisoning claims.
At the time of their arrests, detectives are said to have estimated the losses of the hotel groups whose fraud claims led to a police crackdown called Operation Claims at around £9.5 million.
MailOnline understands the final figure that hoteliers and a public prosecutor will demand, as the compensation has not yet been definitively determined.
Pregnant Laura Holmes Cameron is pictured at the court in Mallorca on September 7, 2017, during a previous hearing related to the alleged scam
Other accused members of the alleged ring include Susan Lyle (left) and Tegan Summerlee (right), pictured outside court
Holmes Cameron was arrested in a luxury villa in posh Bendinat near the glamorous Majorcan port of Puerto Portals (pictured)
The investigating judge made it clear in the ruling made public on Wednesday that payouts received in the UK for the alleged fraud in 2016 and 2017 were “notably more than” £176,000.
Prosecutors are expected to be invited to file their charges by the end of next month.
Highly respected Majorca lawyer Jaime Campaner represents the island’s hotel federation, which has taken its own legal action, separate from the prosecutor’s office, as part of the same criminal case.
Holmes Cameron’s lawyer is veteran Gabriel Llado, who after his client appeared in court at a closed hearing in May 2018, said she had admitted giving over the names and phone numbers of holidaymakers for a fee, but insisted this was part of pure market research. .
He also insisted that neither the alleged gang leaders nor the so-called ‘claim farmers’ collected data from tourists that Holmes Cameron passed on to others in the UK, encouraging the holidaymakers to get chemist’s coupons so that they could make false food poisoning claims as police. and hotelier representatives have claimed.
Laura Holmes Cameron (right) and her mother Deborah Cameron, who was previously detained in the investigation but took no further action
Laura Holmes Cameron and husband Stuart Holmes’ bar Heroes in Puerto Portals was raided by police in 2017
Laura Holmes Cameron (left) is pictured with her mother Deborah who was investigated but not charged
A source close to the case said: “A conviction for fraud would result in both a fine and imprisonment.
“Prosecutors will of course also claim damages for the amount they believe has been defrauded.
“The final figure may not be included in the indictments, but it will be made public at trial.”
The other six Britons indicted have been named as Ryan Bridge; Simon Robert Flanagan; Tegan Jewel Summerlee; Susan Amanda Lyle; Nicola Marie Sanderson; and Peter Carl Murphy.
Bridge, previously called the sole director of UK holiday claims, has been described as ‘one of the people charged with handling the false claims in England’.
The other five Britons have been described as being paid on commission “hired by the two siblings to go to different hotels and obtain tourists’ personal details, including details that the consumption of meals in hotels may be associated with.” be brought with alleged food poisoning’.
The case against four other Britons identified as part of the investigation has been provisionally filed – but only because their whereabouts are unknown and they have not been formally questioned.
The judge said in her ruling that only 38 of the 800 holidaymakers who stayed at Club Mac Alcudia (pictured) and filed a claim for damages requested medical attention
Former Magaluf bar owner Laura, who now spends most of her time in the UK, although it is believed she must register with a court in Palma every few weeks as part of her parole conditions, was arrested in a luxury villa in chic Bendinat near the glamorous Majorcan port of Puerto Portals.
After she was detained, her Playhouse bar was found to have been identified as the location where a British tourist engaged in sexual acts with 24 men over a cheap drink in the summer of 2014.
The fallout from the infamous video led to a crackdown on pub crawls in Magaluf after regional governors described the “outrageous” sex scenes as giving the area and the women a “terrible image” and vowing to “stop it any way they can”.
Holmes Cameron, who was not in her bar when the incident happened, closed Playhouse shortly afterwards.
The UK government has announced new measures to combat false claims for holiday sickness following scandals such as the mock food poisoning scam in Mallorca.
Peter Carl Murphy (left) is one of the other suspects allegedly involved in the fraud
Eight Britons, including Susan Lyle (left) and Peter Murphy (right), have been charged this week with fraud and membership in a criminal gang following a long-running investigation
In the same year of the arrests in Mallorca, Benidorm hotel association HOSBEC estimated that British guests cost Spanish hotels around £55 million in false food poisoning claims.
Some reports at the time even claimed Britons were facing a holiday ban in some all-inclusive Costa hotels.
Many fraudsters were caught after private investigators hired by affected hotels scoured their social media and found they had posted photos of themselves eating and drinking when they later claimed to insurers that they had been in bed with diarrhea.
A family who claimed their vacation was ruined by food poisoning was jailed in February 2021 after Facebook photos revealed they enjoyed the waterslide and bar during the trip.
Christopher Byng, 38, Barbara Byng, 64, Linda Lane, 36, and Anthony Byng, 66, filed false stomach illness claims against Jet2holidays after an all-inclusive trip to the Canary Islands in November 2016.
Christopher, Barbara and Anthony Byng all received four months in prison. Lane received a suspended sentence.