POLOKWANE – Two employees of well-known travel agency, Badiredi Travel, are due to have their formal bail application heard before the Polokwane magistrate’s court today (Thursday), after being arrested some two weeks ago in connection with fraud amounting to R1,8 million.
The alleged fraud reportedly started occurring in 2011.
The owner of the agency who did not wish to be identified did not wish to comment on the matter as the case was sub judice.
According to a source within the travel agency, which has been operating since 2007, the agency did a lot of business with government departments. The alleged perpetrators created non-existent bookings for government departments. The agency would always pay up front for reservations and flight tickets and the departments would pay them later, the source explained. “These were the ideal circumstances for them to steal money,” the source said.
“They (the suspects) then paid this money into their own personal accounts and even opened accounts in the names of friends of theirs. People are skelm and cruel,” the source said.
She said the owner of the travel agency at first thought the departments were just delaying their payments. She became worried, however, when she saw much more money going out than coming in at the agency.
“I just want to warn other travel agencies to be very careful,” the source concluded.
