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29 May, 2024

Sydney travel agent under police investigation after allegedly swindling customers out of thousands of dollars

By Sofia Geraghty

A Sydney-based travel agent is being investigated by police after customers allege they were swindled out of thousands of dollars.

Travel World Sydney – based in Arncliffe – appeared on Nine’s A Current Affair last night after devastated customers said they had booked trips with the agent only to be given fake itineraries.

In one instance, a customer alleged she had been swindled out of a staggering $160,000.

Nicole Vris said she used Travel World Sydney to book a holiday to Greece for 35 members of her family.

“To plan this holiday it takes a very long time, to take time off work, to save your money for the ticket and for your spending money,” Vris told Nine’s A Current Affair.

Source: A Current Affair, Facebook

The family say they paid Travel World Sydney the $160,000 only to later find out that their booking confirmations weren’t real.

“We called Emirates directly, obviously they asked us for numbers that were on that itinerary, they just didn’t exist, we were not in the system.” a visibly distressed Vris told Nine.

She says most of the families will now no longer be able to attend the family reunion.

“A lot of families will never recover from this financially, it’s a disaster, they can’t recover.”

Meanwhile another customer – Fatima Awada – said she used the agency to book a trip to Germany. She said that she realised something was wrong when she hard the agency had been shut down. After ringing the airline she was distressed to discover her trip had been cancelled.

“Yeah, it is a big hit, and it is not just me. My sisters, my mum and her kids as well,” Awada is reported to have said.

“They paid nearly $10k. That’s just from us, that’s nearly $15k of our money.”

NSW released a statement saying they have “commenced an investigation under Strike Force Baile regarding alleged frauds involving a travel agency at Arncliffe”.

“Police have been told that a number of people have come forward to report that they had made travel arrangements with the agency and those bookings had not been honoured.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact St George Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Travel World Sydney has been contacted for comment.

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