Travel agent takes a trip to jail

Complaints against Virginia "Jenny" Carpenter include cruises not booked, double billing and extra charges on customers' credit cards.

By JAMIE MALERNEE and SAUNDRA AMRHEIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000

Jimmie Pearson was promised a fun-filled vacation in Biloxi, Miss.

But when the Brooksville resident arrived at his hotel with several guests in tow, he was told there were no reservations in his name.

Pearson is just one of 10 customers who say that their vacations turned into nightmares after they were swindled by Virginia "Jenny" Carpenter, owner of Jenny's Ships N Trips, A Travel Store and Jenny's Wedding Service. So Thursday, the Spring Hill business woman went on a little trip of her own.

To jail.

Carpenter, 51, was arrested on 11 counts of grand theft, 12 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card and two counts of writing worthless checks. Authorities say Carpenter bilked nearly $18,000 from customers during the past two years. Hernando County sheriff's officials say Carpenter accepted credit card payment for vacations from customers and then used their account numbers to charge additional, unapproved trips.

Other times, reports say, she told customers she had made cruise and hotel reservations and, only at the last minute did customers learn the travel services never received payment. Or they were charged twice for the same trip.

Carpenter, of 3165 Harrow Road in Spring Hill, remained in the Hernando County Jail in lieu of $71,000 bail Thursday.

Many of Carpenter's accusers expressed joy and relief.

"I think it's wonderful and it's great and that it took too long," said Charlene Jokel, a former Hernando County resident now living outside Los Angeles.

Last year Jokel bought three airplane tickets through Jenny's Ships N Trips to move her family back to California. But then in February of this year, two more charges appeared on her credit card statement totaling about $700 for tickets she never bought.

Creditors have finally stopped calling Antonia Kaiser of Spring Hill, but she never got to take her cruise to the Caribbean. With her bags packed just days before the trip in December, Kaiser received a call from the cruise line saying she never paid for the trip and could not go, even though Kaiser had credit card statements reflecting the $4,214 payment to Jenny's Ships N Trips.

Kaiser said she was fooled by Carpenter's charm and pleasant personality, a quality many of the customers commented about when recounting their experience with Carpenter.

"When you meet her and talk to her, she was not a nasty, miserable person," Kaiser said. To talk to her she was a nice person, really, I admit that, and they turn out to be like this. You never know who you meet."

Deen Walsh agreed, saying that when she and her husband decided to cancel their cruise because of safety concerns, they never imagined it would lead to such a financial headache.

"We just didn't feel comfortable going on the cruise and thought nothing of (canceling) it," Walsh said. "We contacted the office, and she said it was no problem."

Instead, the Walshes never received their $400 cruise deposit refund. When they called Carnival Cruise Lines to complain, they were told that the cruise was never booked, despite the fact that Jenny's Ships N Trips had charged $400 to the Walshes' credit card.

Among Carpenter's accusers is Bobby Day, whose wife, Phyllis, is an editorial assistant at the St. Petersburg Times. Day says they were billed twice for the same trip. Carpenter said in April the double billing resulted from a mixup with the tour company.

Records indicate that Carpenter has a history of financial problems, including filing for bankruptcy in 1996, being evicted from two business locations in the past seven months for late rent payments and the seizure of her Hernando Beach house in February. When questioned in April by the Times about the complaints, Carpenter denied wrongdoing and attributed many of her financial problems to medical bills that had piled up from a personal illness.

Given such problems, Walsh said she doesn't know if she will ever see her $400 again.

"Our credit card company won't do anything, so I guess we're going to have to stand in line with the rest of the people," she said. "Though I don't know if she had any money left to give back to us. I don't know what she's got at this point, other than a lot of nerve."

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