Eastern Cape former travel agent faces theft charges

A Makhanda former travel agent is in hot water after he allegedly stole almost R800,000 from his ex-employer.

After having worked as a travel consultant at Go Travel, a division of Tourvest Travel Services, in Makhanda for nearly 15 years, Clinton Gill allegedly misappropriated money meant for booking travel itineraries for clients.

In January 2017, the office manager at Go Travel, Andrea Upfold, discovered several issues regarding travel bookings made by Gill.

According to the charge sheet, between November 2016 and February 2017, Gill had used various means to disguise his alleged illegal dealings.

Gill had allegedly processed unknown and invalid card numbers on the Global Distribution System (GDS) — used by Go Travel to book, among others, air tickets and hotels — and issued air tickets and itineraries purporting to include return airfare.

In fact, one-day bookings were made, and he allegedly created false tax invoices and gift vouchers for clients, allegedly pocketing cash paid for flights which he never handed over to his employer for banking, among other issues.

Gill allegedly also issued itineraries for which he received credit or debit card payments whereas no tickets were issued, with Gill allocating the transactions and payments for other unrelated travel bookings.

It is alleged Go Travel suffered an actual loss of R797,338.91 after having to refund money to some clients who paid cash to Gill, pay for the flight tickets or tours, or both, which some clients had already paid for, and return ticket payments.

The matter was postponed to July 1 for trial.