Travel agent jailed for three years after stealing £500k to fund online gambling

A UK travel agent has been jailed for three years. This is after she defrauded her employer of nearly £500,000. Some of the stolen funds were used to support online gambling.

Carolyn Braithwaite, 44, carried out the fraud while working for loyalty rewards platform Arrivia Europe. Isleworth Crown Court heard she created fake customer refund requests. She then redirected the payments into dozens of bank accounts she controlled.

Braithwaite transferred money into 63 separate accounts. This was at an average rate of £24,000 per month between October 2018 and February 2021.

The mother-of-three admitted to fraud by false representation. The total sum was £491,131.80. She will spend three years in prison. She will face a confiscation hearing on 7 April.

Key Case Information 

Fraud concealed through fake refund requests

According to the court, Braithwaite exploited her role by generating fraudulent refund transactions that appeared legitimate within the company’s systems.

The payments were distributed across bank accounts registered in her own name and her husband’s. This helped conceal the scale of the scheme.

Judge Martin Edmunds KC described the fraud as both sustained and sophisticated:

“After a mistake had been made, you identified a route to defraud your employers, and you did, and continued for 20 months. The fraud was sophisticated and concealed with the use of fake emails and 63 bank accounts, and was sustained over 20 months,” -Judge Martin Edmunds KC

Court hears gambling played role in spending

During the hearing, the court was told that part of the stolen money was spent on excessive online gambling.

Defence counsel Jeffrey Lamb described Braithwaite as being in a “vortex of decline” during the period of the offences. He told the court that she had been under financial pressure. She said she gambled to try to recover losses.

Some of the money was also reportedly used to support her grandparents in South Africa. Braithwaite’s grandparents died in 2021, around the time the fraudulent activity stopped. However, this was also when she was made redundant from Arrivia Europe.

Failed travel business after redundancy

After her redundancy, Braithwaite started her own travel agency called Let Us Book It. The business folded in August 2024. Allegedly, customers were owed thousands of pounds in refunds.

The court also heard that Braithwaite has three children and provides financial support for her father in the UK. She contributes around £300 per month towards his care.

Despite the large sums taken, Braithwaite was unable to account for exactly where all of the stolen money had gone. Authorities will now attempt to recover funds through a confiscation hearing scheduled for 7 April.