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Agency manager faces jail for fraud
A travel agent is facing a prison sentence after being convicted of stealing thousands of pounds from the agency she had worked at for 11 years.
A jury at Hull Crown Court found Belinda Traves, 51, guilty of three counts of fraud and three of theft, totalling £13,302.18.
But she was found not guilty of a further charge of fraud by falsifying records, relating to the alleged theft of £83,000 in cash, reported the Hull Daily Mail.
Traves, who had been shop manager for family-run Bridlington-based Holiday Travel, will be sentenced at a later date but was warned that it was "highly likely" she would receive a custodial sentence. A pre-sentence report will now be prepared.
During a three-week trial, the jury had heard that Traves was first investigated in 2008 following complaints from colleagues, but the company’s MD Stephen Allerston had "brushed it under the carpet", believing she had falsified sales records on Tarsc purely out of professional rivalry, not for financial gain.
Traves was one of the company’s top sellers, and in 2007 had made about £90,000 in commission for the firm.
But following further concerns in 2012 she was investigated again and this time police were called in.
Traves, now living in Pool-in-Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, was arrested in April 2012 and police found £4,000 in a wardrobe and £400 in an envelope at her then home in Bridlington.
She told the court she and her husband kept cash in the house because he was a mechanic and used to buy and sell cars.
Traves had denied the charges, saying that although she believed the travel agency had been defrauded, someone else was responsible.
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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