NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: A New Jersey travel agency that left its customers stranded overseas with unpaid hotel bills when it closed has agreed to pay restitution.

State officials announced Tuesday that Crown Travel Service — also known as Club ABC Tours — and an affiliated company will pay $644,000 in fines and restitution. The Bloomfield companies were run by brothers Robert and Thomas Paris.

The companies left 53 customers stranded in Italy when they closed in October 2012. Two hundred other customers lost thousands of dollars in deposits for vacations scheduled as late as October 2013.

The settlement requires $525,000 of the money to be used as partial restitution for customers. The brothers are facing a civil penalty of nearly $120,000, which will be vacated if they satisfy the settlement terms.