A COUPLE in their forties has been charged for 26 counts of fraud.
Rasheed Ali, 48, and Sherry Durbal-Ali, 44, were charged on Monday.
They were taken to the Central Police Station and granted bail by Justice of the Peace Stephen Young in the sum of $300,000 to cover all the charges.
They are scheduled to appear virtually at the Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court on November 11.
Durbal-Ali, who is listed as the Director of Traveline Travel Agency in Chaguanas, was charged with 14 counts of fraudulent conversion while her husband, Rasheed, was charged with 12 counts of fraudulent conversion.
On Tuesday, police reported that the charges stemmed from transactions which took place between 2018 and 2021 during which time, several persons would have paid varying sums of money to the agency to secure travel to and from numerous international and regional destinations.
However, the funds were allegedly never paid to the airline companies by the couple, resulting in the victims being unable to travel.
The suspects were interviewed by officers of both the San Fernando and Port-of-Spain Fraud Squad offices during the period of September 1 to 5 and later charged for the offences.
The investigation was spearheaded by acting Snr Supt Arlet Groome, supervised by Insp Bachoo and Sgt Seepersad, and included acting Cpl Mohammed, WPC Roberts, PC Jemmet of the San Fernando Fraud Squad and acting Cpl Woodroffe, WPC Crawford, and PCs Legiere and Groome of the Port-of-Spain office.
