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Travel agent accused of cruise funds scam
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, HUDSON -- When Edwin and Marge Dunn booked a seven-day cruise to Puerto Rico in February, they thought it would be a great way to celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary. Instead, they said, they were robbed of $1,300 -- by the travel agent that booked the trip. "It took us a while to realize that we had been robbed," said Edwin Dunn, 68, who lives in New Port Richey in the winter and Mastic, N.Y., in the summer. "It kind of ruined our anniversary cruise." On Wednesday, Pasco sheriff's deputies arrested the woman they said stole money from the Dunns and at least five others. Detectives said she misused $30,000 of her customers' money for her personal use from October to February. Eileen Patricia Vargas, 46, of 7310 Country Club Drive in Hudson was arrested Wednesday. She was being held on $15,000 bail at the county jail in Land O'Lakes on charges of scheming to defraud and grand theft. The investigation began in February, when several people called the Sheriff's Office, saying they had been overbilled by Vargas. Each victim told Detective Scott Gattuso that they bought cruises from the Cruise Shoppe at 7425 State Road 52 in Hudson. The victims paid for their cruises with a check or in cash, said sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers. The customers went on the cruises -- the Dunns said they had a wonderful time -- but when they returned, they realized that Vargas had also charged their credit cards, Powers said. Essentially, Powers said, each person was billed twice. One 83-year-old woman's credit cards were charged $10,700, a report said. None of the charges were authorized by the woman, officials said. Vargas "knowingly misused the victims' funds for her own personal use," Gattuso wrote in a report. The victims, who are from Hudson, New Port Richey and Spring Hill, range in age from 50 to 83, according to reports. The Sheriff's Office still is investigating Vargas, who was arrested in Tampa in 1991 on a grand theft charge and was acquitted. Powers said Pasco detectives are looking for other victims of the double-billing scam. Anyone with information should call Detective Gattuso at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office at 800-854-2862, ext. 7298.
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