Virgin America Employee Sentenced for Fraud
A former Virgin America employee was sentenced to six months in jail Thursday for taking advantage of her job in a complicated scheme to get free flights for her friends, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Jocelyn Mallare, who will turn 54 next week, pleaded no contest in May to grand theft embezzlement for stealing thousands of dollars in flights and upgrades from her employer over six months in 2013, prosecutors said.
While working as a guest service representative at the company’s Burlingame headquarters, she started making fraudulent transactions, setting up travel accounts for her friends and then issuing credits to those accounts for “cancelled” flights that were not in fact cancelled, according to prosecutors.