Last year, Emma Yankey admitted to taking £46k from 25 people through a fake holiday scheme but walked free due to her children. Yesterday, she appeared back in court for further fraud charges which predated the holiday scam.
The Liverpool Echo reports that Yankey took deposits from families for fake holidays to Cyprus that she had advertised on Facebook. She then told them that the trip had been cancelled but refused to give their money back.
This time, Liverpool Crown Court heard she fraudulently obtained a mortgage on a house in Walthamstow in London in 2013 before fraudulently selling the same property the next year. The 44-year-old also obtained a fraudulent financial agreement in 2014.
Yankey pleaded guilty to all three charges without a barrister present due to the ongoing strikes. The prosecution said it understood that she was pleading guilty on the basis that she committed the fraud under the controlling and coercive behaviour of a former partner.
Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said: “The crown do not accept on the facts available that she was subject to duress or controlling behaviour. The crown put forward that that is a matter for her to assert.”
The judge was asked to give a date to determine if they accept the plea and a date for the next hearing was set for next month. Yankey was bailed but before leaving the dock, Judge Recorder Mark Ainsworth told her: “The fact that I am giving you bail now is not an indication of the sentence you will receive. All options remain open to the sentencing judge.”
In 2017, Yankey advertised a holiday in Cyprus on Facebook and through word-of-mouth. She then cancelled these fake holidays and pocketed the money which amounted to £46,691.76.
Detailing the offences at the time the judge, Recorder Richard Archer, said: "I have to sentence you for a fraud and assisted money laundering charges arising out of your involvement advertised by Facebook to offer holidays to individuals under the name '3TheSoulHolidays'."
Recorder Archer said at the time: "The reason I did that, though it's important for the courts to consider caring responsibilities, that cannot and will never hold the court to ransom, essentially saying you can't send me to prison because I've got children".
The judge said that Yankey's partner moving in three weeks ago "would be some poor substitute" for having their mother. He explained: "It is for that reason and that reason alone I am prepared to suspend prison sentence in your case.
