Callcentre workers steal £400k from TUI Travel

Four callcentre workers stole over £400,000 from their employer TUI Travel by paying customer refunds to themselves when processing claims.

The callcentre staff in Newcastle put their own bank account details into the chip and pin-based system used to refund customers, according to a report on ChronicleLive.com.

"These four defendants all worked for TUI UK Ltd a company that sells holidays on behalf of Thomson and others. Part of their duties involved refunding customers when holidays were cancelled or for whatever reason didn't go ahead. This was done using a chip and pin system. What the defendants were doing was paying money to themselves by entering their own bank details onto the chip and pin machine and pressing the refund button. The total theft was just over £400,000," said Stuart Michie, prosecuting.

The theft was only discovered when an audit was carried out after the callcentre closed. Two of the four found guilty were sentenced to 30 and 16 months in jail. The other two defendants received suspended sentences, must abide to a curfew and complete 150 hours unpaid work.