Between 2004 and 2006, Philippou was involved in conspiracies where he and his co-defendants repeatedly set out to acquire, or sometimes to set up from scratch, travel agency businesses which were used as vehicles for fraud. The travel agencies attracted customers by offering cut-price holidays. The prices were so low that legitimate companies could not compete with them. In each case, the travel agency ceased to trade, leaving customers without a holiday. This scam defrauded an estimated 20,000 people.