Admitted fraudster gets five years in prison for religious travel scam

By Michael Hinkelman and Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: July 27, 2012

INSTEAD of providing the promised trip of a lifetime to his victims, John Baird delivered heartache and disappointment, profiting from the dreams of his senior and religious victims.

That's how a federal prosecutor described Baird, 74, of Elkins Park, to a federal judge Wednesday at his sentencing.

Baird owned and operated a travel business, Christian Pilgrim Tours Inc., that arranged trips to holy sites in the Middle East and elsewhere. He pleaded guilty in January to bilking 138 customers of more than $400,000 between April 2006 and 2007; victims had signed up for seven trips that were subsequently canceled and for which customers, with few exceptions, were not paid refunds that Baird promised them.

U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson sentenced Baird to five years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $410,340 to his victims. He must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Aug. 24.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Diviny said that Baird's company filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 16, 2006, one day before an offered trip to Poland had been scheduled to depart.

Baird told Baylson that his attorneys had told him that he should look after his ailing wife and that they would keep an eye on the travel business, later advising him to take the company into bankruptcy. "I had ineffective counsel," the admitted fraudster said. "If they had done their job, I wouldn't be here today."

Baylson said: "You preyed on people who were poor, of modest means, who were vulnerable and elderly, and you lied to them."

Baird advertised in Catholic magazines and often enlisted priests or other church leaders to encourage members to attend his trips. Diviny said that Baird's customers paid him directly by mailing him checks, almost always the full price of the trip, far in advance.

The prosector said that some victims felt guilty because they had introduced others to Baird. The feds said that Baird used the funds taken from customers to pay for groceries, baseball tickets, his mortgage and legal fees.

Contact Michael Hinkelman at 215-854-2656 or hinkelm@phillynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @MHinkelman.

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