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Agency manager accused of fraud and theft
A travel agency manager is in court this week accused of defrauding £100,000 from the company where she had worked for 11 years.
Belinda Traves, 51, has denied two counts of fraud and three of theft from the family-run Bridlington-based Holiday Travel.
According to reports in the Hull Daily Mail, a jury at Hull Crown Court was told that Traves, from Pool-in-Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, had set up a complex system of fraud and used the money to pay for holidays for herself and her family.
It is alleged that she falsified sales records on Tarsc so that commission meant for colleagues would go to her, and falsely applied discounts to old holiday files and took the refunds.
Giving evidence earlier this week, the agency’s managing director Stephen Allerston said when other staff raised concerns, he had initially given Traves the benefit of the doubt, believing she had either made genuine errors or had made the changes out of professional rivalry, not for financial gain.
Traves was one of the company’s top earners, and in 2007 had made about £90,000 in commission for the firm, although her own bonus that year had been around £3,500.
When Traves was arrested in April 2012, police found £4,000 in cash in a wardrobe and £400 in an envelope.
The trial continues.
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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.
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