Family’s dream Disneyland Paris trip left in tatters after fraudster pocketed their £8,000 and took her own kids to Disney instead
Hilda Clayton booked trip for 17 people after her grandson, 5, recovered from a near-fatal heart condition
A FAMILY's dream holiday to Disneyland Paris was left in tatters by a fraudster who pocketed their £8,000 — and used it to take her own family to the resort instead.
Hilda Clayton planned the trip for 17 people including ten kids after her five-year-old grandson Aiden recovered from a near-fatal heart condition.
She booked through Ashleigh Turbitt's firm South Shields Day Trips on Facebook — but discovered she had been duped the day before they were due to travel.
Hilda, 54, said: "We all had our suitcases packed and the bairns couldn't wait to go.
"It is absolutely disgusting what she has done to these bairns. My heart aches for all of them."
Turbitt, 26, did not book the coach and ferry travel, the hotel rooms or the theme park tickets she had been paid for.
Instead she spent the money on spa days, online gambling, "spending sprees"; on clothes and electronics, rent arrears and debts.
The brazen mum of three even used some of the money to visit Disneyland Paris with her own family.
Hilda, of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, told cops it felt as though her "heart had been ripped out" when she realised she been conned.
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She had booked the holiday six months earlier after little Aiden Marshall was allowed to return home from hospital following a long illness with an enlarged heart and liver.
He was on a transplant list and deteriorating, but then docs fitted a "Berlin heart" to pump for him while his own heart muscle recovered.
Hilda said: "The day before we were going in July 2015 we heard rumours that the trip wasn't going ahead.
"My daughter phoned the hotel we were supposed to be staying in and they only had two rooms booked for the next day.
"There was supposed to be three coaches full of people going.
"I went to Ashleigh's house but she wouldn't let me in. She didn't give me any answers, so we called the police."
Another 150 families also paid for dream Disney trips but were left out of pocket and with nowhere to go, a court heard.
Mum-of-seven Hilda, who has seven grandchildren, added: "I had been on day trips with Ashleigh before where she was also on the bus with her children.
"She seemed like a nice, genuine person. So we had no reason not to trust her this time.
"We thought it was a good deal. Everyone used her and trusted her."
Newcastle Crown Court heard when her scam began to be uncovered, Turbitt lied that another man had failed to make the bookings on her behalf and claimed a lover had run off with the cash.
Eventually she admitted the con and pleaded guilty to fraud.
Recorder Keith Miller said she had been "carried away by greed and avarice" and caused "misery" to her victims.
But he let her off with a suspended sentence so she can care for her kids including a young baby.
Hilda said her family and friends are "furious" the crook was allowed to walk free, adding: "It is an absolute disgrace.
"I don't think the judge was thinking about our bairns.
"They say crime doesn't pay — I think it does. She is protected by the law.
"We haven't heard anything about getting our money back. It's terrible what she has done to everybody."
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