Travel agent jailed for fraud
A travel agent has been jailed for fraud after using £26,000 of a customer’s savings as a cash cow.
According to a MailOnline report, Sufiya Esa and her family wept in Snaresbrook Crown Court as she was handed a two-year sentence.
The court heard that the 41-year-old agent, from West Ham, had used the savings of customer Iqbel Salah to pay for other customers’ flight and hotel bookings because she had already spent the money which should have paid for their trips.
Mr Salah had used Esa’s travel agency to book a trip for treatment for his sick daughter.
He gave over his card details but was told his card had been declined, prompting him to hand over new card details.
In total, Esa ended up going through 11 of his credit cards and used £26,000 of his money to fund her company’s backlog of bookings.
The prosecution said when Esa was interviewed in July 2016, she said it was bad business practise ‘but not fraud’.
In her defence, lawyer Ranjeet Dulay said Esa is ‘clearly not a good businesswoman’ and that the fraud arose from an attempt to save face.
Esa admitted eight charges of frauds and had 14 other frauds and attempted frauds taken into consideration, amounting to £17,000.
Judge Nicholas Sanders said: "This was quite clearly an abuse of your position of trust and reasonable members of public provided you with their card details for the specific purpose to buy their flights. You used them to acquire flights for other people. There was considerable effect on the victim."
He said he had no choice but to give a prison sentence as Esa was given a suspended sentence back in 2010 when she had used a similar scam to get £13,000 from another travel agent to keep her former business going.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Qatar Airways offers flexible payment options for European travellers
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt
Digital Travel Reporter of the Mirror totally seduced by HotelPlanner AI Travel Agent
Strike action set to cause travel chaos at Brussels airports
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025