A former travel ticketing agent yesterday pleaded guilty to 22 charges brought to him by the Bandar Magistrate's Court for issuing forged flight tickets and deceiving his customers while pocketing approximately B$16,025 from the scam.

Prosecution Officer Siti Aisyah binti Lakim stated before presiding Magistrate Hajah Ervy Suftriana binti Haji Abdul Rahman that the scam by 50-yearold local Zufri bin Mohd Jair, who was working for JB Travel and Insurance Agencies began sometime on February 2, 2015.

His first victim was an Indonesian national whom he lead to believe that he was able to issue him a valid Royal Brunei Airlines return ticket to Surabaya, Indonesia from Brunei Darussalam and dishonestly induced the victim to pay B$400 for the forged e-tickets.

The defendant said he crafted the scam after incurring monetary losses from the sudden cancellation of about 50 AirAsia flight tickets by his clients which were not refundable by AirAsia. His plan was to recover these loses by using the money from new customers.

Court documents further stated that a police report was lodged by Royal Brunei Airlines in July 2015 on 28 reported cases made to the airline company's sales department on the cheating for the tickets sold by JB Travel and Insurance Agencies.

Investigations revealed that the above-mentioned report led to the discovery of the other 23 reports that were also launched between July 2015 and November '2015 on the same matter. Based on all complainants' statements, they all stated that they bought the flight tickets from the defendant at the travel agent.

The defendant forged the e-ticket by copying the details from a valid flight ticket that had been previously issued by Royal Brunei Airlines including the ticket number and also by inserting the name of complainants, travel dates and destination to the forged document.

The scam was uncovered when one of his victims went to the head office of Royal Brunei Airlines to check details of his flight and was told that his name was not listed on the flight and the ticket issued to him was actually issued previously to another person.

The defendant is facing seven years of imprisonment and a fine under Section 420 of the Penal Code, Chapter 22 for deceiving victims into paying for the forged tickets and faces another charge under Section 465 of the Penal Code, Chapter 22 for document forgery.

During court proceedings yesterday, he pleaded guilty toll charges under Section 420 and 11 charges under Section 465 and also agreed for all 28 offenses he committed to be taken under consideration.The defendant will learn his fate on February 1, 2017 when he will be sentenced.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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