Asian man jailed for travel agency fraud

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A 55-year-old Asian man has been sentenced to five years in prison by the High Criminal Court for fraudulently issuing airline tickets and embezzling BD6,000 from a travel agency.

The court also ordered the confiscation of seized assets and the deportation of the defendant upon completion of his sentence.

The defendant, an employee of the travel agency, was charged with exploiting the electronic signature of a colleague to issue numerous tickets without authorisation.

He used his access to the company’s system to embezzle the funds.

The charges included unauthorised access to the agency’s IT and electronic systems to make bookings and issue tickets, and fraudulently obtaining money belonging to others.

The case came to light when the agency’s branch manager discovered the employee’s embezzlement.

Electronic key

Although the employee’s access was temporarily suspended, he managed to access the booking system using another employee’s electronic key.

He issued a large number of tickets without the knowledge or authorisation of the agency, defrauding the company of BD6,000.

A key witness, whose electronic account was used, testified that the defendant had agreed to book return tickets for his friends for BD270.

Transaction

The defendant received the payment via BenefitPay, but the tickets were never confirmed, revealing the fraudulent nature of the transaction.

Further investigation revealed the defendant had issued numerous fraudulent tickets to other customers.

During the investigation, the defendant confessed to the charges.