Leslie Glauser of T&T Travel pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 on Tuesday. She was charged earlier this year after a 16-month investigation by RCMP.
Police received more than 250 complaints about the business, which were brought under one encompassing charge.
“I feel bad for her family. But it just has to be stopped and she has to pay the price for her crime,” said Cheryl Bleile, one of the Kindersley residents who is anxiously waiting to find out about Glauser’s sentence.
Bleile and her husband planned to travel for their son’s destination wedding last November, after he and his fiancee won a special wedding package through T&T.
About 30 of their family members booked travel with the agency and paid for the trip in full, said Bleile, who had taken up a second job to pay for the trip.
But instead of celebrating a destination wedding, the Bleiles learned their air travel fares had not actually been paid by the agency.
When the fraud was revealed, other family members were able to recover some of their losses through their credit card companies but Bleile and her husband, along with her daughter and her daughter’s fiancé, were out a total of about $5,000.
“It was awful. I had worked with [Glauser’s] children and my son that won the trip worked with her husband,” Bleile said. “She sat right across from me while I was writing my cheques to her, so I was very frustrated and disappointed.”
Bleile says she would like to see Glauser serve time behind bars for the hardship she caused.
Glauser’s lawyer, Robert Robbenhaar of Medicine Hat, did not respond to a request for comment.
Glauser’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Read the full story over at CBC News.
Read our original story about this case, here.
This story was summarized by Canadian Fraud News Inc.
