ANDREA Penrose, an
ex-Seekers Travel
employee, served
eight months of her
sentence in prison and
is currently under house
arrest after being found
guilty of defrauding the
company of R100 000.
Responsible for recruiting
in-house agents for
Seekers, she and her
ex-husband falsely claimed
a recruitment fee for his
recruitment company.
“Once you are convicted
of the crime and charged,
there’s no chance of
negotiating the sentence or
offering to pay the money
back. Once you are in
court it is the state versus
you and the state wants to
win,” she says.
Andrea was pregnant with
her second child on the
day she was sentenced
but says the court was
unsympathetic about her
daughter, even suggesting
that she be placed in
foster care if necessary.
On the day of sentencing
she dropped her daughter
off at her mother’s house
and told her she would
see her later. “I was under
the impression that I
was not going to jail, but
‘later’ turned out to be
a year later,” she says,
explaining that once she
was sentenced she was
removed from society
immediately.
“Prison is humiliating.
They take everything away
from you, strip you naked
in a room full of strangers
and conduct a cavity
search.”
Andrea says all she was
given was an ID card,
which she was told to keep
safe so that if she were to
die they would be able to
identify her body.
Because she was
pregnant, she was locked
up in the maternity section
of the prison, which had
around 17 prisoners
sharing a cell built for 10.
Shackled to hospital bed
On the day she gave birth
she was shackled to the
hospital bed and had to
deliver her baby naturally
without any painkillers.
Describing her
experience, she says that,
despite being pregnant,
she lost 29kg because
of how bad the food was.
“You are locked up and
do absolutely nothing for
24 hours a day. There is
no peace and quiet, no
privacy. It denitely wasn’t
worth the R100 000.”
Once released, Andrea
managed to nd a job
but was red once they
discovered she had a
criminal record. “I will
always have a black mark
next to my name. The
criminal record never
actually goes away,” she
says.
Andrea remains under
house arrest until March
next year. She was
fortunate to be offered
a job as the operations
manager of a travel agency
but says she doesn’t work
with anything linked to
nances. She adds that
she is earning what she
got when she rst started
working.
She has permission to
go to work every day but
has to be home by 21h00.
On weekends she has to
be home by 16h00. She
says she is often unable
to attend school evenings
with her children or travel
anywhere out of Gauteng
without permission.
Andrea now speaks at
industry events, sharing
her experience and
message with others in
travel. Her advice to others
in the industry is: “If you
suspect that you have
put yourself at risk, come
forward.”
She says the fraud she
committed cost Tourvest
Travel Services around
R100 000 but that the
company was willing to pay
a lot more in legal fees –
around R700 000 – to see
justice done.
“It’s not about the money;
you can’t commit a crime
and get away with it. The
travel industry is taking a
stance against fraud.”
Fraud is ‘just too easy’
Andrea says she is not a
devious person and didn’t
concoct the plan to defraud
the company. She believes
fraud is a massive problem
in travel because it is “just
too easy”. “I didn’t think
that I was doing anything
wrong because the clients
had the budget and I also
thought I was entitled to
it because I worked hard,”
she says.
Andrea says the travel
industry is self-governing,
which opens it up to fraud.
“There is no regulatory
body governing the industry
and in many cases fraud is
due to bad management.”
Andrea adds that trust is a
big factor in the industry, in
that clients and managers
trust travel professionals
to do the job honestly.
Not an isolated incident
Unfortunately, there are many
stories like Andrea’s in the
travel industry. One agent,
also previously employed
by Seekers Travel, was
sentenced to three years
in prison in August after
pleading guilty to theft and
fraud amounting to
R600 000. The investigation
found that the agent
defrauded her previous
employer and several clients
of more than R2,5 million,
says Christo Snyman,
director of forensics at
Mazars.
The agent was investigated
for theft of cash payments
received from clients for their
travel arrangements, theft of
cash payments received for
ctitious airport tax invoices
raised, fraudulent use of
client card details to pay
false invoices, fraudulent
use of client refunds to pay
invoices, fraudulent use
of client card payment to
complete payments on cash
invoices raised and
for fraudulent transfers
and credit notes.
Christo says the agent
attempted suicide shortly
after the scheme was
uncovered when queries
were raised about unpaid
commissions by travel
brokers contracted to
Seekers Travel.
Another travel industry
professional, previously
employed as an
administrator at Club Travel,
received a suspended
sentence of ve years in
prison after pleading guilty
to defrauding the company
of more than R130 000,
on condition that she paid
the money back during
this time. She was also
placed under house arrest
for three years and has to
do community service. The
agent made payments into
bank accounts belonging to
her and two accomplices
under the impression
that the payments were
for franchisees and ITCs.
According to her charge
sheet, she was heavily
in debt and the nancial
pressure was what led to her
committing fraud.
Kim Botti, director of Lee
Botti & Associates, says
a criminal record check is
done at offer stage and is
only done if the candidate
gives permission for it. If
they are found to have a
criminal record, she says this
information is presented to
the employer who will usually
decide based on the merit of
the case whether or not they
will still employ the person.
She says, because fraud is
so rife in the travel industry,
if the agent has been
convicted of fraud there’s a
good chance they will not be
employed.
Kim says not all travel
companies use recruitment
agencies and that they often
employ people by word of
mouth without checking
references. Companies are
often unaware that they are
employing people who have
committed fraud in the
past.
