A 'lifestyle coach' who stole more than £80,000 from  Premier League footballers and other high-profile clients by claiming she was arranging luxury holidays for them.

Claire Duke set up a business, Solutions Lifestyle, where she advertised flights and hotels at discount prices for wealthy clients including Stoke City striker Peter Odemwingie.

The 38-year-old pocketed payments she received.

After believing they had paid her for the whole package for their holiday, her clients and their  families arrived at their arranged destination only to be told their hotel had not been paid for.

Among her other victims were Liverpool’s Andre Wisdom and former West Bromwich and Celtic manager Tony Mowbray as well as other unnamed wealthy clients.

Yesterday Duke appeared at Stafford Crown Court where she wept in the dock as she confessed to seven counts of fraud.

She made £82,561.79 fraudulently from six of her clients between April 2012 and July last year.

The court was told Duke stole more than £15,000 from Nigerian striker Odemwingie, 32, after obtaining his bank details from his debit card.

She also conned Mowbray – who was managing Middlesbrough at the time – by getting him to pay her more than £30,000 to stay at a luxury hotel in Dubai.

When he arrived with his family, he found that a different – less luxurious – hotel had been booked and the bill had not been paid.
Duke, who described her role at the business as a lifestyle coach, also pocketed £6,000 from Wisdom, 21 – currently on loan to Derby – after he paid for a trip to Jamaica.

She is understood to have known the players she duped on a professional level for some time.

Duke, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, also swindled money former Middlesbrough FC manager Tony Mowbray

Hugh O’Brien-Quinn, prosecuting, said Mr Odemwingie had paid her £7,000 so she could book him flights to Miami. He added: ‘He paid with his debit card.

He married his fiancee in May 2012 and his future parents in law paid £7,560 to book a honeymoon.

‘The defendant pocketed that money but needed to cover her tracks and book a honeymoon. So in April 2012 she used Mr Odem-wingie’s debit card details and paid £7,471.12 from that account to another company who arranged the honeymoon.

She received £1,000 commission and even handed over the tickets at the wedding reception.

She then used Mr Odemwingie’s card again for return flights from Eindhoven to London for a football agent  priced at £325.33.’

Mr O’Brien-Quinn added: ‘On April 10, Andre Wisdom, a player for Liverpool FC paid £6,600 to the defendant for a flight to Jamaica. That money has disappeared.

‘Again she needed to cover her tracks and used Mr Odemwingie’s account to do so, paying £15,160.44 for flights and hotels for Mr Wisdom’s holiday to Jamaica.’

Duke was arrested in February last year but continued to  offend on bail.

She was yesterday given a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Recorder David Mason QC said he was not sending her to jail due to the effect it would have on her two children. ‘I hope that my decision is the right one,’ he added.

Outside court, Duke said: ‘I am deeply sorry for all the upset and the stress that I caused.’