Bogus agent jailed for £80,000 holidays scam
A fraudster who posed as a travel agent has been sentenced to two years in jail after police arrested him at Gatwick as he tried to leave the country.
Jonathan Richman, of no fixed address, spent four years between 2011 and 2015 pretending to be an agent dealing in cheap last-minute holidays.
But Richman was really pocketing his clients money while paying for the holidays using fraudulent credit card details. The Metropolitan Police said this had cost travel companies “thousands of pounds” after the card companies spotted the fraudulent payments and recovered the money.
Two of Richman’s clients were even arrested as they returned to Heathrow from a holiday in Thailand because they were suspected of using fraudulent card details before it became apparent that they were victims of Richman’s crimes.