Air miles fraud uncovered
A man who used to be a check-in clerk for Air Canada has been caught “siphoning off” five million air miles from passengers’ accounts and then using them to fund first-class trips around the world.
According to The Independent newspaper, 24-year-old Satbal Singh, an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan, set up 13 bogus accounts in his name, and then added customers’ frequent flyer points when they checked in for flights with airlines including Air Canada and Virgin Atlantic.
He also arranged trips for friends and family; the newspaper reports that some of the trips included four business-class tickets from Singapore to New Zealand.
Singh admitted false accounting, obtaining services by deception and obtaining property by deception. He will be sentenced in May.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad
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