Cruise-scamming travel agent must sell his house to repay victims

WOODBURY, N.J. (AP) -- A former travel agent from New Jersey has been ordered to sell his house and car to pay restitution to 20 customers who paid him for a Mediterranean cruise that never happened.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office says a judge told Ellis Hester that she should have sent him to prison.

The 58-year-old Gibbstown resident pleaded guilty to theft in 2011 for taking money for a cruise but never providing it.

He was supposed to pay $400 a month to the victims but stopped paying last year, saying he could not afford it.

The judge says he must sell his house, valued at $260,000, and his 1998 Mercedes to make good on the $41,000 he still owes the victims.

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