Virgin duped into free flights by staffer

Black woman in handcuffs
A Virgin Australia call centre staff member has duped the airline into booking $225,000 worth of free flights.
The staffer now faces almost two years jail time for the crime, according to a report in The Courier.
Using a loophole and abusing her position, Margaret Vaaipu Mose was able to book 134 flights over a two-and-a-half-year period until she was arrested in July 2015 and subsequently fired from her position. Virgin was able to cancel 40 flights after discovering the fraud.

According to the report, Mose “paid” for the flights using virtual money held in 71 “travel back accounts” she fraudulently created. These accounts held funds from cancelled flights until they are re-booked at a later date.

Mose largely gave away free flights, mainly to Samoa and New Zealand for members of her church congregation, family and friends, the District Court was told, per the report. It was advised she has not reimbursed the airline for the booked flights.

 

The court was told some family and friends paid her directly for the flights, but the airline never received the funds.

She received cash deposits totalling $140,000, prosecutors said, however Mose claimed most of this was payment for hotels and hire cars, per the Courier report.

 

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