Travelscene American Express is working with the Northern Territory fraud squad after one of its agents vanished leaving customers’ financially stranded and with their travel plans in tatters.
Jennifer Pfitzner, from Travelscene Darwin City, is wanted for questioning over the disappearance of a reported $200,000 of client money. She has not been seen or heard of since the end of 2012 with at least 20 customers left in the lurch.
Travelscene Amex general manager Jacqui Timmins confirmed in a statement today that it has “referred a very serious incident involving multiple cases of suspected fraud to the NT fraud squad”. Travelscene has been unable to contact Pfitzner since mid November.
Timmins insisted that “every effort” had been made to contact the agent and obtain information about the state of her business.
“When this information was not forthcoming Travelscene American Express immediately terminated its relationship with Ms Pfitzner effective November 17,” Timmins said. “We are deeply distressed by the impact her behaviour has had on the travel plans of a number of people in the Darwin community.”
Travelscene stressed it had no control over the agency’s finances as it was independently owned and operated. “We neither had, nor have access to financial records and have no information on the nature and timing of any transaction conducted by Ms Pfitzner,” Timmins said.
The situation is made even bleaker as the Travel Compensation Fund does not cover the NT.
“We have already been able to help some people, with the much appreciated support of suppliers,” Timmins said. “The situation for others is far more complex. We have and will continue to work with those individuals where possible to source alternative arrangements.”
“We continue to work with the relevant authorities to facilitate their investigation,” she added.
