Police called in to investigate ABTA fraud

An ABTA employee has been suspended pending a police investigation into fraud totalling six-figures. ABTA spokesman Sean Tipton told TravelMole: ?A member of staff was suspended last week due to a six figure fraud relating to claims.? The alarm was raised when an ABTA employee became suspicious about a consumer claim following an agency failure. The suspicions were confirmed when proof of payment offered by the claimants was shown to be defective. ABTA has now called in the Metropolitan Police to help it investigate the claims that it believes to be fraudulent. ABTA chief executive, Ian Reynolds said that despite receiving a clean bill of health from an independent audit last year, a further assessment of ABTA?s claims procedures will now be carried out. He added: ” ABTA’s financial standing will be unaffected by this incident, as the money involved has already been accounted for, and we do not expect there to be any impact on this year’s financial statements.”