Travel Agency Accused Of Selling Bogus Vacations

LAKE STEVENS - At first glance, a local community newspaper called it an innovative and unique new business.

But a mounting number of customers fear theft and fraud could be a more accurate description.

Since March 31, when detectives arrested the owners of Par Travel in Lake Stevens, the telephone at the Snohomish County sheriff's office has been ringing with people telling of their aborted travel plans and lost funds.

Now law-enforcement officials are seeking more people they think could have been victims. Already, there are 100.

The Sheriff's Department hopes to present its case to the prosecutor's office Friday to possibly add to charges already filed against owner Tim Daugherty, said sheriff's spokesman Elliott Woodall.

Tim and Nancy Daugherty were initially arrested and held in lieu of $40,000 bail each. Tim Daugherty remained behind bars yesterday, charged with four counts of first-degree theft and four counts of unlawful issuance of bank checks.

Nancy Daugherty was released on bail. She had not been charged.

The alleged victims and the Sheriff's Department say Par Travel sold bogus trips to Mexico and other places for huge discounts. The company collected some of the money up front and collected the rest just before the travelers were scheduled to depart.

In some cases, trips were delayed and travelers received excuses instead of airline tickets and hotel reservations, according to sheriff's Detective Jim Haley. In other instances, travelers received airline tickets but upon arrival found hotel accommodations had not been paid, Haley said.

Tim Daugherty refused to comment yesterday. His wife could not be reached.

However, bankruptcy attorney Steven Michaels, who filed a Chapter 13 for Par Travel just before the couple were arrested, said he is convinced the Daughertys made some poor business decisions but had a potentially viable business plan.

Harry Lemke, a Lake Stevens resident, said he lost $1,200 after giving Par Travel money for six family members to travel to Cancun, Mexico.

"We really started getting worried about the first of March, but we got enough stories (from Tim Daugherty) that I really thought it was going to happen. Then I believed we were going to get our money back," he said.

Lemke outlined an ordeal that began in December. Lemke's family, which operates a video store in Lake Stevens, had some personal experience with the Daughertys and had been approached by Tim Daugherty about purchasing an inexpensive trip to Cancun. When Par Travel was featured in a Dec. 29 article in a local newspaper, Lemke decided to buy the trip.

The Lemke group planned to leave for Cancun on March 19, and it was issued "certificates of travel" from the Daughertys. When airline tickets failed to arrive on time, Lemke visited Par Travel several times.

Finally, Tim Daugherty told Lemke that the trip was canceled and that his money would be returned.

Then the excuses started again, Lemke said. One time, Daugherty said he would call Lemke with his mother's credit-card number, on which Lemke could charge the $1,200 Daugherty owned him.

"I sat by my phone until midnight that night," Lemke said.

"If you sit down to talk with him, he is so convincing it's scary. . . . He is the smoothest talker I have ever met in my life," said Rachael Weed, whose party of 48 also claims to have been victimized by Par Travel.

"You'd go in so mad you were ready to tear his face off and walk out thinking he was your best buddy."

Despite the growing list of alleged victims, the Daughertys operated Par Travel for only five months. Before that, Nancy Daughtery worked as a nurse, and Tim Daugherty, among other things, served prison time for possession of a dangerous drug, two counts of second-degree theft and two counts of forgery.