Daily London
A travel agent from Sydney’s south has admitted to a fraudulent scheme which ruined overseas holidays and netted her more than $77,000.
Zahra Rachid booked international flights for customers to destinations including Portugal, Greece, Lebanon and Iran, but secretly cancelled the tickets to pocket the refunds for herself.
The director of Travel World at Arncliffe pleaded guilty to ripping off eight customers in 2023 and 2024.
Many only realised their tickets were cancelled when they contacted their airlines to finalise the details for their international trips.
One victim discovered he didn’t have a flight to Athens when he arrived at Sydney International Airport to depart for his five-week holiday to Greece in May last year, and was told at the check-in counter his ticket didn’t exist.
His daughter and Etihad employees tried repeatedly to contact the travel agent, but they couldn’t reach her.
He had paid Rachid $2499 for the Etihad flight in February 2024 and picked up the ticket, but she cancelled the booking the same day.
Another victim paid Rachid more than $50,000 in October 2023 to book business class flights and accommodation for a family trip to Lebanon and Portugal.
Then, just days before Christmas that year, Rachid cancelled the booking through the third party flight consolidator Airtickets and emailed Emirates to try and speed up the refund.
The customer only discovered his bookings were cancelled the following year and never got his money back from the travel agent.
According to agreed facts tendered in court, Rachid’s travel agency was in financial crisis when she embarked on the scheme, with the company’s bank account in negative balance on 837 occasions between January 2023 and June 2024.
The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to eight counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
She had been facing 82 charges, but 72 were previously withdrawn and dismissed.
She’ll be sentenced in Downing Local Court in January.
