A travel agent specialising in Christian themed holidays has been charged for defrauding his clients of £26,000 and misusing the money that the clients was going towards a cruise that would take in the Holy Lands.

According to the lawsuit, Bob Fleming, owner of Living Sun Holidays based in New Malden, accepted payments for a cruise visiting the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, the Colossus of Rhodes site and Byblos in Lebanon but instead allegedly ploughed the money into a hotel in Turkey that he had invested in.

The 10-day Mediterranean cruise was supposed to start in Turkey and take in the site of the Colossus of Rhodes, Byblos in Lebanon and Jerusalem's Garden of Gethsemane but after a change in the itinerary supposedly over problems in the Gaza Strip, customers started asking for refunds.

"They thought they were securing a berth on a cruise ship. He should have paid for the cruise with that £26,000, but he didn't. It was channelled to his other business, a hotel he had leased in Turkey and he asked his customers to stay in that hotel. He used the money to renovate that hotel. It is dishonest," Prosecutor Richard Hallam said before the court, according to the Evening Standard.

The prosecutor further said that the tour operator lied to the customers as he not really booked the cruise, and had no authority to use the clients' money for the Turkey hotel, which he had allegedly been trying to push on clients if they agreed to extend their stay.

"Refunds were chased, but there had been no protection in place in the eyes of the law and he had lied that flights were Atol-covered. Mr Fleming never paid or confirmed the bookings with Thomson. He had to invent reasons why there were delays in refunds," he said.

Hallam however acknowledged that Fleming eventually gave refunds to some of the clients, albeit many months after.

"There are no debts, no one's owed any money. I don't believe I am guilty of an offence," Fleming said in court.