- Nicola Roberts, 60, confessed to embezzling almost £280,000 from airlines
- He has repaid most of it but still owes £8,980 in interest.
- He was given an 11-month suspended sentence.
A Spanish court has sentenced a British travel agent to 11 months suspended prison after admitting embezzling cash intended for airlines such as British Airways.
Nicola Roberts, 60, was charged with misappropriating almost £280,000 of customer money which she did not pass on to the airlines as their agent after a lengthy investigation by Mallorca prosecutors.
She was warned that she could face a prison sentence of a year and a half if she went to trial and was found guilty.
At a pre-trial hearing yesterday in a court in Palma, the Majorcan capital, Roberts confessed to wrongdoing after reaching a plea deal.
His prison sentence was automatically suspended as part of the negotiated agreement.
Nicola Roberts, 60 (pictured), was accused of misappropriating almost £280,000 of customer money which she did not pass on to the airlines as their agent.
The Spanish court imposed a suspended sentence of 11 months on Roberts
Prosecutors accused the travel boss of embezzling almost €325,000 (£278,000) from airlines including British Airways and Lufthansa.
Prosecutors accused the travel chief of embezzling almost €325,000 (£278,000) from airlines including British Airways and Lufthansa in December 2019 and January 2020.
In a three-page pretrial indictment they also highlighted the fact that she had returned most of the cash she had kept from the sale of airline tickets instead of passing it on to the companies she represented.
At the time she was the sole owner of Ticket Agencia de Viajes, based in the town of Portals Nous, a 10-minute drive from the popular British tourist center of Magaluf.
His payments to airlines were taken into account as a mitigating factor.
Roberts is understood to have repaid all the money he was accused of keeping before yesterday’s pre-trial hearing, but still owes €10,500 (£8,980) in interest.
He will also pay legal costs and a small fine as part of his plea deal.
His sentence was read at the Provincial Court of Palma. The pretrial indictment offered no information about why Roberts kept the money.