A
FORMER Air Canada check-in agent who siphoned more than five million
frequent-flyer miles was caught by police probing illegal immigration.
During
his scam Afghani asylum-seeker Satbal Singh, 24, flew first-class to New Zealand
on tickets that should have cost him £5,000. He also took loyalty gifts
including a digital camera, a portable DVD player and a mini-fridge.
Singh,
of Hounslow, west London, admitted false accounting and obtaining services and
property by deception at Isleworth Crown Court. He will be sentenced next
month.
The court heard how he set up 13 bogus loyalty
accounts in his own name. When passengers for Air Canada, Virgin Atlantic and
other airlines checked in, he added their free miles to his accounts. The National
Crime Squad claimed Singh also sold some of his free air miles, arranging
business-class flights for a family from Singapore to New Zealand and flights
for a couple from Frankfurt to Bombay.