29 February 2008

Industry will always attract the crooks

Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (http://www.jeremyskidmore.com/)

The conviction this week of a travel agency gang which carried out a multi-million pound fraud is a stark reminder that crooks will always gravitate to the travel industry like flies to manure.

The industry has certainly grown up from the 1970s and 1980s when it seemed that anything went in the wild west arena of travel, where tales of sharp practice were legendary. Even as a young rep I was fed a diet of stories about fellow reps feathering their nests to the extent that they could buy properties in resort after a season (not me, guv).

A lot has changed, but the very nature of the business, where you take large amounts of cash off people, often way in advance of delivering anything, will prove too much for many of the weak or plain crooked.

In recent years weÃ¢â¬â¢ve had internal frauds at tour operators and last month a director of the failed insurance company ESR was arrested on suspicion of fraud. LetÃ¢â¬â¢s not prejudge that case, but it doesnÃ¢â¬â¢t take a rocket scientist to work out how you might commit a fraud in that line of business, if you were of that persuasion.

And then thereÃ¢â¬â¢s the internet, where no-one knows youÃ¢â¬â¢re a dog and you can pretend to be anything you want.

You can just imagine the annual conference of the Association of British Swindlers, with the top brass sitting around sipping cocktails and the chairman saying: Ã¢â¬ËœRight, lads, where shall we make a few million this year? Travel industry, again? Yeah, OK.Ã¢â¬â¢

The rumour is that the recent fraud conviction is just the tip of the iceberg. But with police resources stretched, I shouldnÃ¢â¬â¢t think many of the villains are having sleepless nights.

ABTA is hoping for a substantial sentence. So am I, because without it, there really is no deterrent and we might as well all go on the fiddle.

Quite why a gang that has effectively robbed holidaymakers of millions of pounds should be treated any differently from a gang that robs a bank of a similar amount is beyond me.

All this is very frustrating for ABTAÃ¢â¬â¢s head of financial services, Mike Monk, who revealed he has been working with the police and tracking the gangÃ¢â¬â¢s activities for the past 10 years.

Of course, for a great portion of that time, he was hindered by having to work alongside a certain Riccardo Nardi, who was detained at her MajestyÃ¢â¬â¢s pleasure for fleecing ABTA out of Ã&#pound;1m between January 1995 and December 2002.

No doubt Riccardo will be out soon (if he isnÃ¢â¬â¢t already), writing a book about his experiences and appearing in the next Ã¢â¬ËœIÃ¢â¬â¢m a celebrity, get me out of the jungleÃ¢â¬â¢, etc.

Crime doesnÃ¢â¬â¢t pay, according to the old saying. But unfortunately, in the travel industry, too many people are prepared to take the chance that it just might.

We need people like Monk to keep fighting the fraudsters, but to say he faces an uphill struggle is an understatement.

Post your comment

Your Comments (1)

Much work still to be done...

I was involved in two FTO/ABTA committees during the time of Nardi's ABTA "career" and am now working with one of the TTA's largest members, a web and call centre retailer. That ABTA had at its heart someone who was ultimately convicted as a criminal was a problem since it undoubtledly caused the organisation to take its eye off the ball, which was supposed to be "policing" its members. ABTA's reputation has yet to recover. Maybe if the ABTA code of conduct introduced a new clause with a penalty of cutting people's fingers off if they steal would reduce crime by memebers? Perhaps TTA is the future (subject to addressing cashflow issues)... all money paid held in trust until the customer goes on holiday and the supplier gets paid? Of course, there will always be opportunists, but it's dangerous media talk to suggest that the industry is completely filled with sharp operators from Club 18-30 reps to bucket shop owners.

By Simon Thorp, Friday, February 29, 2008