Agent accused of stealing traveller’s cash

Sky2Sea door

(CNS): A local woman has been accused of stealing more than $25,000 from over two dozen customers when she worked at a George Town travel agency some four years ago. Ingrid Scott (44), a part-owner at Sea2Sky Travel when she allegedly took cash from customers for airline tickets that she never purchased, faced a jury of five women and two men Tuesday morning, as the crown opened its deception case against her. Scott is accused of taking the money from 29 people who came into the travel agency to buy airline tickets between January and July 2012.

Crown prosecutor Toyin Salako told the jury that the customers paid Scott for their trips in cash. None of them were ever issued with tickets, she said, but were given itineraries and receipts, which Scott instructed them to take to the airport on their day of travel, where they would get the actual tickets.

However, when they arrived at the check-in desk, they learned there were no bookings for them because the tickets were never paid for, Salako told the court. She said that despite paying Scott for their tickets in full, the customers were stranded or forced to buy new tickets, in many cases, at a much higher price. The prosecutor said that while some customers had valid outbound tickets and were able to travel to their destination, when they tried to return to Cayman, they discovered the second leg of their trip was not booked.

According to the crown, people had purchased tickets for destinations all over the world, from Jamaica to Sri Lanka, for a variety of reasons, such as vacation, visiting family and, in one case, getting married, but they all found that their trips had never been secured with the relevant airlines.

Salako said that the evidence showed that Scott had taken cash in each case, and while it was unclear what the woman had done with the money, as the court heard the business was struggling from the very beginning, she had taken cash for tickets that she never bought.

The jury was told that Scott’s partner in the business was Thelma Sully. The two women had worked together at another travel agency in 2010 and when that closed down, they decided to start their own business. The court heard that Scott was the qualified travel consultant who dealt with the travel details and ticket purchases, while Sully was an administrator. Sully put up the start-up cash and Scott brought the industry expertise.

When she took the stand, Sully said she had discovered cash flow problems from the very beginning. She said that Scott told her this was because she was giving credit to customers for the tickets she was purchasing and that she would get the money.

However, Sully said she was forced to borrow money to keep the business afloat. As time went on, the finances of the travel agency got worse, despite Scott’s promises that she would collect the money she claimed was owed to the business from people who had bought tickets but not yet paid for in full.

Sully told the court that Scott ran up significant credit card bills to pay for airline tickets but there was no cash to cover them or other business related bills, as Scott continued to claim she was giving customers credit. Sully said she spoke with her on several occasions about this and told her to stop selling tickets on credit and collect what was owed, but Scott never provided the details of who owed the business money and for what tickets, and by the summer of 2012 the situation came to a head.

According to the prosecution, with bills piling up, the agency lost its licence to buy airline tickets, but Scott nevertheless continued to collect cash from customers for airline tickets that she knew would not be issued. She was arrested after customers complained to the police.

Scott has denied the charges and the case continues in court five before Justice Richard Williams.