Traitors star Maia Gouveia was caught apparently using a company credit card after being fired from her job for going AWOL on vacation in Trinidad.
The BBC contestant, 25, was employed by gift company Bubblegum Stuff as a social media manager last year, but was made redundant after three months when she suddenly stopped showing up for work.
Maia, whose sister Armani, 28, appeared alongside her in the hit TV series before being exposed as a traitor, failed to notify her bosses of a holiday in Trinidad in February 2024, leading to her contract being terminated. .
Six months after leaving the business, owned by Apprentice 2016 runner-up Courtney Wood, 38, Maia apparently used the company’s credit card without authorization to make several purchases having saved the details to her personal Apple Pay.
The credit card was immediately blocked and the incident was reported to the police, with Maia later claiming that the charges on the card were made accidentally.
Maia, who has 152.7k followers on TikTok, stars in the current season of The Traitors, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, 52, and was stunned after discovering that her co-star and sister Armani had been secretly working to assassinate other players.
Traitors star Maia Gouveia was caught apparently using a company credit card after being fired from her job for going AWOL on vacation in Trinidad.
The BBC contestant was employed by gift company Bubblegum Stuff as its social media manager, but was fired after three months when she suddenly stopped showing up for work.
Maia’s sister Armani was kicked out of the game on Friday after her teammates denounced her for being a traitor.
A source close to Maia said: ‘Maia is deeply remorseful for the mistakes she made during her employment at Bubblegum Stuff and her subsequent actions.
‘She was going through a difficult time as a new mother and wishes she behaved differently.
“Maia’s father visited the Bubblegum Stuff offices to make amends after the credit incident was exposed, while Courtney decided not to take the matter further.”
The mum, who is pregnant with her second baby, is one of 25 contestants on this year’s The Traitors competing for a potential prize of £120,000.
Her older sister, Armani, worked undercover as one of the three Traitors, but was banished during Friday night’s delivery.
Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted she was 60 percent sure her sister was a traitor and the cast voted to eliminate her from the competition.
Speaking ahead of her appearance on the show, Maia confessed to being a “natural liar” and was inspired to sign up after watching previous series and feeling she could do better.
She said: ‘I watched the last series when it aired and I was really interested. I always thought to myself that I could do better. I was literally thinking you guys are not lying correctly, you are not lying correctly, there are too many emotions going on, this is money.
MailOnline has contacted a Traitors spokesperson for comment.
Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted she was 60 percent sure her sister was a traitor and the cast voted to eliminate her from the competition.
Maia sobbed as she realized that her instincts were correct and that Armani had been working undercover to secretly assassinate the Faithful.
The sisters revealed their connection early on rather than opting to work together secretly in a bid to win the award.
‘So yes, one was that I felt I could do better. The second was money. My daughter is going to daycare soon and that is expensive. It’s like having a mortgage, so that was a motivator too.
‘I’m also a very competitive person in general. Growing up, I was a born liar. And then I stopped lying, because my family said it was getting really bad. I would always blame my sisters. So, I took the opposite route and instead got very, very direct. And it went straight to the edge of being rude.
‘So, I had to learn to evaluate what is good to say and what is not good to say. Now I’m a little excited to be able to lie again, if I’m honest. “I’m excited to be able to change some stories and make things up and that will be fun.”
Wednesday night’s episode will see the return of three contestants who were sacrificed on the train to Ardross Castle.
Former British diplomat Alexander, 38, extension manager Fozia, 50, and tradesman and landscaper Jack, 24, make dramatic returns after volunteering to leave the competition before the game had started.
The Traitors’ job is to secretly murder their fellow players, without being caught, and it is up to the others, the Faithful, to try to detect who the Traitors are and banish them from the game before they become their next victim.
In last year’s series, traitor Harry Clark won the money after successfully convincing Mollie Pearce that he was faithful.
The former British army engineer, 22, manipulated the group to win a total of £95,000, saying his tactic was to only be a traitor when wearing the cloak.