Agent sentenced for ticket fraud
A SOUTHALL travel agent has been handed a suspended three-month jail sentence after she scammed holidaymakers into handing over thousands of pounds, writes Jacob Phillips.
Abida Khatoon Kyani, of Pinkwell Lane, Hayes, tricked customers into buying tickets with cash at her travel agency SM Travel Limited.
Most customers bought “once-in-a-lifetime” flights to see relatives in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. But when they turned up at the airport, they discovered they did not have seats on the flights.
An investigation by Ealing Trading Officers and the City of London Police discovered Kyani had scammed travellers between October 2017 and August 2018. The police and Ealing Council investigated after customers complained they had lost money when booking tickets through SM Travel, based at the ABC Shopping Centre in Broadway, Southall.
When officers visited the travel agency, they found customers arguing with Kyani about payments for airline tickets which had later been cancelled. No tickets were ever issued.
Kyani was sentenced to three months in jail, suspended for 12 months, at Isleworth crown court on August 23, and will also have to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work. The court ordered her to pay £,1250 in compensation to her five victims and she has been banned from being a director for six years.
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, Ealing Council’s cabinet member for decent living incomes, said: “We have pledged to get tough on fraudsters who take advantage of consumers. In this case, Ms Kyani deceived people out of their hard-earned cash for flight tickets to visit relatives, often those who were ill.”
Mohammed Tariq, who is in charge of the investigation for Ealing Council, said: “Many of these vulnerable victims, who trusted Ms Kyani to provide flights, suffered emotionally as well as financially.
“It is important that consumers conduct their own research into travel companies they are thinking of using and make sure they are members of ABTA and are ATOL protected by checking online.”