The National Police have arrested a 64-year-old man in Tenerife accused of defrauding 45 different clients of the travel agency he owns, and is the sole administrator of, to the amount of almost 40,000 euros.
In the last few weeks, complaints have begun to accumulate from people affected in similar ways by the same travel agency, located in the town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna.
They are claiming to have made a reservation and paid a deposit for various different types of travel and holidays, both to mainland Spain and international destinations, but have never received confirmation of their booking or payment, while the agency said that the minimum number of travellers to make the trip possible had not been reached.
Those affected contacted the agency to claim the money back, but it never materialised. Eventually, an employee encouraged them to go to the police to file a denuncia against the agency because the owner had not been seen since the beginning of October, and they hadn’t been paid for two months.
In total, thanks to the collaboration of the worker, police received complaints from 45 people affected by unreturned deposits to the sum of 39,397 euros which disappeared along with the owner.
Analysing the data from the denuncias and information from the employee, the National Police interviewed several of the victims and carried out an investigation in which they were able to identify the man, linking him to the travel agency and the bank account into which some of the deposits from the bookings had been paid.
For this reason, he was located and arrested for the crime of continued fraud, and has been placed at the disposal of the competent judicial authority awaiting trial.
