A TRAVEL agency in KZN recently fell
victim to theft and also uncovered
fraudulent activity, both committed
by a member of staff it trusted.
The agency, which preferred to
remain anonymous, had hired the
employee as an intern. He was
promoted to a junior consultant,
then to intermediate consultant,
eventually managing the agency’s
Pretoria office at the beginning of
this year. He’d been with the agency
for four years.
“He was an excellent
people’s person and
customers loved working
with him,” the agency’s
owner said. “But, somehow,
in the past few months,
bad habits developed and
he started making unusual
purchases with the company
credit card – a bus ticket
for his girlfriend. Soon,
his performance at work
deteriorated and he started
making errors. He also
repeatedly booked tickets on
a JNB-HRE-JNB flight for a
particular group of people.
After a disciplinary hearing
in September and another,
three weeks ago, the
employee was dismissed.
He was asked to hand in all
company property, but did
not, went missing and was
unreachable.
Next, the agency was given
an ADM from the airline for
non-payment on the JNBHRE-JNB
flights. The tickets
had been booked using a
fraudulent credit card.
“Travel agents are
notorious for not doing
proper background
checks on potential new
employees,” says Christo
Snyman, national director:
Forensic Services of Mazars.
“In most of the cases I’ve
investigated – where travel
agencies experienced fraud
by an employee – the person
worked at another travel
agency where he/she was
dismissed for a similar
offence.”
Ceo of Asata, Otto de
Vries, says Asata has a
database listing individuals
who’ve been dismissed
due to an offence in the
industry. Asata members
can use e-Watch to contact
the previous employer to
find out why the person was
dismissed.
