Businessman Peter Lee built up a successful bus company and a happy marriage with two children. He had homes in London and Durham, employed people and even advised ministers on transport matters. Today Lee was facing jail after admitting charges of theft, forgery and false accounting.
His travel firm has crashed and his staff have all lost their jobs. He became obsessed with the call-girl called Tia, lavishing her with cash and gifts. When his personal money ran out he began diverting funds from his company, Durham Travel Services. Lee will be sentenced for his crimes at Durham Crown Court tomorrow. To all who met him, the businessman was a pillar of respectability.
But his addiction to sex with Tia cost him his wife and the respect of his children. Lee's plight is a far cry from the late s when he launched Durham Travel Services, running bus and coach operations across the UK and the Continent. With fellow director Eric Bowerbank, who had nothing to do with Lee's secret life, they developed the firm and in bought coach operator York Pullman. In , they gained a contract with Nexus to operate a "care call" service for travellers with disabilities.
Neither of these women was a prostitute. Then while Lee was on holiday a query was made about the firm's accounts. The police were called and in August the firm went into liquidation. Mr Bowerbank said: "I, like others, feel utterly betrayed. I lost the business I'd worked hard to build up over 14 years. Like many other people in the company, I lost my livelihood. A source close to the case said: "Peter Lee was a very successful, self-made man but through greed and his obsession with one particular vice girl he threw it away and sent his company into liquidation.
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