A SCAMMER who sold bogus flight tickets has been sentenced at Dudley Magistrates Court after pleading guilty.

Muhammed Awais Raja, from Hilton Grove, Shipley, West Yorkshire, was part of scam flight ticket provider trading as Sunshine Travels, which targeted consumers via Facebook by offering flights to Pakistan.

The court heard how in 2020 a complaint was received from a Dudley consumer who had responded to a Facebook advert for Sunshine Travels, and subsequently received a call and bought airline eTickets.

Five return tickets from Birmingham to Pakistan were offered for £1,848, the actual amount paid by the consumer was £1,197 plus the exchange of tickets already purchased from PIA (Pakistan International Airways). The customer made a bank transfer for £1,197 to an account he believed was M.A. Sunshine Ltd. It was only when he attempted to call the company to enquire about buying an additional ticket and couldn't make contact that he became suspicious.

After contacting the airline directly, he discovered the eTicket numbers quoted related to tickets issued in other passenger names.

A further online search for Sunshine Travels revealed the individual and email address he had dealt with on Facebook was not the genuine Sunshine Travels.

Enquiries made by Trading Standards revealed monies paid were transferred to Raja’s personal account. Raja told trading standards he had no connection with Sunshine Travels and no knowledge of the matter and claimed the personal account in his name was opened fraudulently by an unknown person.

Trading standards also identified further victims of the scam, one of whom became a witness in the investigation.

At Dudley Magistrates Court on Wednesday July 17 Raja pleaded guilty to two theft charges and one charge of money laundering.

He was sentenced to a 48-week prison term, suspended for 18 months, 150 hours community service and placed on a curfew for three months.

Raja was also ordered to pay £2,287.00 in compensation, a £156 victim surcharge and £3,000 in costs.

Councillor James Clinton, Dudley Council’s cabinet member for public health, said: “We do not tolerate scammers in this borough and our trading standards team will actively pursue complaints of this nature wherever possible.

"It doesn’t matter where the criminal is based, in this case Yorkshire. If one of our residents is affected, we will look to take action.”