LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — A travel agent based out of Lackawanna County is being charged with 16 felony counts of fraud and theft between three different police departments after she allegedly took tens of thousands of dollars from her clients.
"All of us are of the older age and over 55 and I feel like it's just terrible that people in our community have been defrauded who are elderly," said Nancy Scott, a Thompson Tour client.
On Oct. 7, Nancy Scott along with 10 other people were all getting ready to go to Italy. They were all clients of Thompson Tours, a travel agency owned by Eileen Miner.
“She was very confident that things were going to go well, that we going to enjoy certain of the trips, and we had a lot of questions which pretty much she answered, so there really wasn't much reason to believe we weren't going on the trip," Mary Jo Rodio, a Thompson Tour client.
Then just hours before their flight to Italy was supposed to leave, the entire group gets an email saying the trip is canceled and refunds will be discussed on a later date.
"I was concerned prior to the cancellation of the trip because we never got any email confirmations on flights, so when I wasn't getting any email confirmation on flights, I do a lot of traveling, I knew there was something not right with this trip," Vincent Sardo, a Thompson Tour client.
According to police documents, Eileen Miner was found in her car at the parking lot of a nearby casino during a welfare check that same day. Police say in the documents that they suspected Miner gambled away the more than $50,000 she was paid by the 11 people in the group to plan the vacation.
"There were a lot of emotions, anger, sadness. But I would say I felt mostly violated by this woman, this person who did this to us," said Rodio.
She was charged with 16 counts of felony fraud and theft by the South Abington Township, Scranton and Archbald Police Department.
"We don't feel like we'll have any reimbursement because there's just such large numbers of people that seem to have been violated by her,” said Rodio.
Miner has been unable to post bail and is currently locked up in the Lackawanna County Prison, awaiting a preliminary hearing later this month.