A travel agent is accused of scamming 5 people out of $25,000 for an Alaskan cruise and then going on the trip himself

• Tour company owner Charles Johnson has been accused of scamming customers out of more than $25,000.
• Authorities said Johnson led people to believe they'd booked an Alaskan cruise.

A tour operator has been accused of scamming customers out of more than $25,000.

According to authorities, Charles Johnson, the owner of Carolina Blue Tours in Statesville, North Carolina, led five people to believe they had booked an Alaskan cruise in July.

Then, days before the cruise was scheduled to disembark, he told them the sailing was canceled and failed to issue refunds, a representative for the Iredell County Sheriff's Office told Business Insider.

But an investigation by the sheriff's office revealed that the cruise hadn't been canceled and that Johnson had never booked his clients on the trip.

Instead, Johnson boarded the cruise himself, a sheriff's office representative told BI.

Johnson was arrested on December 19 on charges of six counts of felony obtaining property by false pretenses.

In July, an 83-year-old woman who had sent Johnson money for the cruise filed a fraud report with the sheriff's office, according to Charlotte's NBC affiliate WCNC. In the report, she alleged that she and other older people were targeted, WCNC reported. BI requested a copy of the fraud report from the sheriff's office but did not hear back at the time of publication.

According to WHKY, a radio station in Hickory, North Carolina, the sheriff's office obtained search warrants for both Johnson's financial records and the company's account history with Royal Caribbean, the cruise line the travelers believed they were booked on. Royal Caribbean did not respond to BI's request for comment at the time of publication.

According to WHKY, the sheriff's investigation showed that Johnson had moved business funds to a personal account, which he then used for personal trips.

Johnson was issued a $6,000 secured bond and has a court date set for January 17, WHKY reports.

BI was not able to verify contact information for Johnson or Carolina Blue Tours, which is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, to reach out for comment. Additionally, BI reached out to the district court, which did not have Johnson's attorney listed.