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Travel agent admits to conning customers
A travel agent has admitted taking tens of thousands of pounds from customers in various holiday scams.
Kathy Ward, former owner of La Mon Travel Limited in Downpatrick, Ireland, pleaded guilty to 80 charges in court at the weekend.
In some cases it was heard clients were left stranded at airports and ferry terminals after being conned, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
Ward, 39, admitted 28 charges of fraud by false representation, 33 of fraud by abuse of position, 18 of theft and one of forgery at Downpatrick Crown Court.
Her boyfriend and co-accused, 47-year-old William McConkey, also of Tollymore Brae, admitted five counts of fraud by false representation and two of theft.
Charges included keeping the cash deposits for holidays for herself, writing a ‘1’ in front of amounts made payable to her on customer cheques and changing the amounts owed from hundreds to thousands.
She also fraudulently used client credit cards in telephone bookings with tour operators, such as Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Ward, a former air hostess, was first charged in December 2010 after police carried out a fraud investigation spanning a six-month period from September 2009.
Sixty customers were conned out of cash by Ward and the amount is understood to exceed £100,000.
Both defendants are due back in court for sentencing in June.
Diane
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