HOTEL bosses in Majorca are calling for a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence for a British mum accused of a holiday food poisoning scam.
Essex-born Laura Joyce, 44, is one of eight accused of defrauding three hotels in Majorca out of around £9.5m after tourists were convinced they were making false claims.
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Laura Joyce charged with food poisoning scam during holiday in MajorcaCredit: Solarpix
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She ran a bar in Magaluf where a British tourist was filmed performing sexual acts on men for cheap drinks Credit: Solarpix
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Laura was accused of being part of an ‘organized gang’Credit: Solarpix
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Laura was arrested in September 2017 and photographed in handcuffs while pregnant Credit: Solarpix
She allegedly used middlemen to encourage tourists to fake illness to claim compensation.
The court accused Laura and her brother Marc Cameron Grimstead of forming an “organised gang motivated by profit” through a Spanish company they called Elite Project Marketing SL.
They are accused of fraud and membership in a criminal group.
The siblings face trial along with five other Britons they allegedly recruited to trick tourists into making false claims of food poisoning – and get a UK-based businessman to process them.
They are named as Ryan Bridges, Simon Robert Flanagan, Tegan Jewel Sumerlee, Susan Amanda Lyle, Nicola Marie Sanderson and Peter Carl Murphy.
Detectives are said to have estimated the three hotel groups’ losses as a result of the alleged fraud between 2016 and 2017 at around £9.5m.
The mum-of-three was warned earlier this year that she could face a hefty prison sentence if found guilty of being a ringleader.
In new documents seen by The Sun, the Majorca Hoteliers’ Federation said it wanted Laura to be jailed for five years if found guilty of aggravated fraud and a further year and six months if convicted of gang membership.
The seven-page indictment filed in court said her brother Marc is also wanted in prison for five years – four for aggravated fraud and 12 months for being a member of a criminal group.
She called for the same sentence for Ryan – described as having processed false claims of food poisoning “knowing that intoxication did not exist”.
The other five Britons are said to face a total of three years and nine months in prison if convicted of both charges.
A date has not yet been set for the trial, which is expected to take place next year.
As well as jail terms, the hotel federation said it wanted all eight Britons to be fined if convicted – and to pay compensation “in an amount determined after a trial”.
It says losses so far have been calculated at more than €1.243m (£1.069m).
Spanish prosecutors have not yet said what penalties and fines they are seeking for the British accused.
It is thought they could face at least eight years in prison if they are found to have defrauded more than €400,000.
More than 800 tourists made claims against one of the Majorca hotels – of which only 38 required genuine medical attention.
A six-page judgment handed down by a court in Mallorca said: “A gang specializing in obtaining information on British tourists at all-inclusive hotels in Mallorca convinced them, using a self-made form, to falsely claim to have been ill during their stay to one of those hotels and be able to seek compensation in the United Kingdom.”
Laura was arrested in September 2017 and photographed handcuffed while heavily pregnant.
After appearing in court in May 2018, her lawyer Gabriel Llado said she admitted to passing on the names and phone numbers of paying tourists
But she insisted it was part of pure market research.
He insisted that neither Laura nor any of the so-called “claim breeders” she used to collect tourist data which she passed on to others in the UK encouraged them to obtain pharmacy receipts so they could fake food poisoning claims as police and hotelier representatives. they claimed.
And he claimed that Laura only spent a few months doing it and stopped because she was making very little.
No further action was ever taken against Laura’s mum Debbie.
Debbie was held in a luxury villa in upmarket Bendinat with Laura after the police raid – but was released before going to court.
After Laura was arrested, it emerged that her Magaluf bar Playhouse was identified as the place where the British tourist was filmed performing sexual acts on 24 men for cheap drinks in the summer of 2014.
The fallout from the infamous video prompted a crackdown on the resort’s party bars.
Laura, who was not in her bar when the incident occurred, soon closed the Playhouse.
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Laura is accused of fraud and membership in a criminal groupCredit: Solarpix
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Peter Murphy has been named as one of the UK suspects Credit: Solarpix
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Tegan Sumerlee was also accused of being part of the scamCredit: Solarpix
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