Centurion travel agent Lorraine Eloff (who also goes by the name Fourie) has appeared on fraud and theft charges in Wynberg Court on December 11. The amount in question? R638 880.
Travel News’s information is that this could be the tip of a very large iceberg.
Eloff was released on R20 000 bail and is required to appear again on March 25. She also has to report to the Lyttleton Police Station twice a week. She was originally arrested in Pretoria on December 3.
Eloff operates under the name Eastco Travel.
The complainant in the case is believed to be the Principal of Wynberg Boys High School who engaged the services of Eloff and Eastco Travel to assist with travel arrangements for 22 pupils of the school to the US.
The allegations are that Eloff received two upfront payments from the school but failed to make the necessary bookings.
It’s very possible that at least one more case against Eloff will be added to the charge sheet.
It appears that she might have a trail of many unhappy would-be travellers looking for justice.
On discovering that they had been taken for a ride, consumers started contacting the airlines only to discover that tickets had been voided without permission and had not been paid by the agent.
According to ofm.co.za, in June 2023 a Centurion couple paid Eastco Travel for a trip to Bali, only to find that their air tickets had not been booked and they were unable to secure new ones at short notice.
Consumer website, hellopeter.com, is also showing several complaints, including a consumer whose cousin in the US is alleged to have lost R300 000 to Eastco. She says Eloff’s businessis now "permanently closed" and believed to be in liquidation. The consumer advises others affected to open cases in Johannesburg.
Another complainant warns others that when ticket prices are too good to believe they should be suspicious. “Takes your money upfront. Then stops taking calls. Lots of excuses – child sick, computer crash, can’t get into her system – sounds like **** because it is.”
Yet another says: “Emirates informed us that it never received payment for our tickets.” She alleges that she is just one of 48 people in a similar situation.
Attorney Arno van Niekerk, in a post on Ofm.co.za’s Facebook site has asked any complainants who reside in or around Johannesburg, to contact him at arno@krauseinc.co.za as soon as possible.
