Agent Fraudster Jailed 3 Years for Stealing $600K+ to Fund Online Gambling

A travel agent has been jailed for three years after scamming a loyalty rewards platform out of over $600,000. Carolyn Braithwaite admitted to defrauding her employer, Arrivia Europe, for over three years. She used the money to fund “excessive” online gambling.

Isleworth Crown Court in the UK heard how the 44-year-old paid fake customer refunds into 63 different bank accounts between October 2018 and February 2021. On average, she was stealing £24,000 ($32,000) a month, with the money going into accounts under her and her husband’s names.

Judge Martin Edmunds noted that she spent the money supporting her grandparents in her native South Africa and on “excessive” online gambling.

In other cases where stolen funds have been gambled away, companies have been urged to refund the money. In this case, there were no details given about how much of the funds Braithwaite lost to gambling.

She said she gambled part of the stolen funds in an attempt to win back the money she had taken. After losing her job at the company in 2021, she then set up her own travel agent, Let Us Book It, which subsequently failed in August 2024, allegedly owing customers thousands of pounds in refunds.

Suspicions Over Failed Business

In announcing the closure of the company in 2024, Braithwaite posted a message on a now-deleted Facebook page, stating, “We’re reaching out to you today with heavy hearts to share some news – effective from the 5th August at 00:00, Let Us Book It will be permanently discontinuing operations and has gone into administration.”

The message added, “With the compounding challenge of costs having rapidly increased across all aspects of business, we are unfortunately at a point where it is no longer sustainable for us to continue service.”

It is unclear whether the business closure was due to mounting gambling debts or to evidence of the stolen funds from Arrivia Europe coming to light.

The company does not appear to have been officially registered as a business, and customers report receiving receipts stating that Braithwaite was trading as a sole trader under her own name. She does appear to have registered a travel agency under the name Adventure Africa in 2019, however.

Stuck in Vortex of Decline

In addition to complaints about money not being refunded, other customers complained that the company ran fake giveaways on social media. All the transactions were done via Facebook Messenger.

One customer said she was notified that she had won a competition, but then Braithwaite contacted her in attempts to sell extras for the trip.

“I asked Carolyn many times for confirmation, but she came up with every excuse under the sun,” said the customer. “Her dad had died, her son was sick, he was in intensive care with bacterial meningitis. I kept waiting, but she never sent any confirmation, but she did try to sell me other extras such as excursions and spa treatments on board, but by then I was suspicious and refused.”

Others reported being owed thousands of pounds for holidays they booked that were then cancelled. It is unclear if all the customers were eventually refunded.

Braithwaite’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lamb, said she was stuck in a “vortex of decline” at the time of the offences. In another case in the UK last year, a fraudster was jailed for 17 years for stealing over $1 million to fund a gambling habit.