Former hotel manager jailed for fraud after using customer’s card to buy train tickets

A hotel manager who used a customer’s credit card to buy train tickets has been jailed for a year, following a British Transport Police investigation.

 

Blessing Bere, aged 49 of Cadiz Street, Edinburgh pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on Tuesday 11 February.

 

The court heard how, on Thursday 3 May 2022, the alarm was raised when the customer, who had stayed overnight at the Surrey hotel where Bere was a night manager, noticed that a transaction has been made on his card to pay for train tickets and contacted LNER customer service.

 

They in turn contacted their fraud department who marked the ticket numbers, due to be used on 6 May, as being fraudulent.

When Bere presented the tickets on a journey from London to Edinburgh the number immediately flagged the tickets as being suspicious and a fraud alert.

 

The Revenue Protection Officer asked that Bere leave the train at Doncaster so further enquiries could be made. He was met at the station by a BTP officers who noted that Bere seemed flustered and offered no explanation as to how the tickets were purchased.

Further investigations showed that Bere had attempted to purchase a number of LNER tickets using different cards and he was subsequently arrested.

 

Bere was searched and several items seized from him, which included several credit card authorisation forms for the hotel with customers’ credit card and personal details recorded on them.

It emerged that the victim had provided his AMEX credit card on arrival to hotel reception staff for any charges to the room. This was the AMEX credit card that the unauthorised transaction was made on.

Detectives contacted the banks relating to the card details found on Bere and discovered that he had made charges to another customer’s account totalling almost £250.

 

DC Kristene Lawrence said “Bere was in a position of trust at the hotel where he worked and customers believed that their credit card details were safe when they handed them over. However Bere chose to use this information fraudulently and for his own gain.

“Ultimately he has paid a hefty price – a criminal record, a prison sentence and unemployment.

“It’s safe to say that crime really doesn’t pay.”

 

Peter Craggs, Senior Fraud Prevention Manager at LNER, said: "We take all reports of fraud incredibly seriously and collaborate closely with BTP to protect the public. Identifying those people abusing the system and ensuring they cannot use our services to profit from their crime is key to our approach.”

“We’re pleased that the teamwork embodied by our fraud prevention, customer service and onboard teams, together with our colleagues at BTP, has led to justice being served.”