Police study insider roles in ticket scam

Police study insider roles in ticket scam

JAKARTA (JP): City Police are trying to determine how a recent
ticket scam at Merpati Nusantara Airlines, which has inflicted Rp
15.6 million (US$6,000) in losses to the state-run airline,
developed.

Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said Thursday that an arrested
suspect in the case could not have operated alone without the
help of airline staff in letting passengers board planes without
proper tickets.

"We are still investigating how passengers carrying fake
tickets could smoothly pass by the check-in counter and board the
plane without any difficulty," Aritonang said.

The suspect, identified only as TR, 31, was nabbed by the
airline's security officers at a Merpati district office on
Tuesday for allegedly using and selling counterfeit tickets, said
Merpati spokesman Tondo Widodo in a release.

TR, identified by Merpati as a travel agency director in
Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, confessed he ran the illegal business
alone, said Tondo.

"Based on our investigation, there's no evidence that any of
our staff played a role in the case," Tondo said.

According to Merpati, the suspect, who is now being held at
City Police Headquarters for further questioning, had operated
his business for 10 months since June last year.

It is believed TR illegally extended routes of tickets he
purchased, Tondo said.

"He also changed passengers' status, such as from children to
adults," he said.

By doing so, the suspect could collect extra money from the
return tickets he sold to his customers which were much lower in
price than official prices.

Aritonang said the suspect confessed he often escorted the
passengers who bought the tickets from him, from the check-in
counter to the boarding gate.

"There's probably one or more insiders involved in the scam.
Not in the changing of routes, but in letting passengers with
illegal tickets board the planes," Aritonang said.

Tondo revealed that TR's favorite routes were from Jakarta to
Medan, Denpasar, Ujungpandang, Pontianak and Jayapura.

A one-way ticket costs between Rp 300,000 and Rp 600,000 each,
according to the official Merpati rate list.

It was unclear how much TR offered the counterfeit tickets
for.

According to Aritonang, a Merpati ticketing official who was
questioned earlier last week said routes attached to the tickets
seized from TR were different from when they were purchased at
the Merpati office.

The airline's management learned of the case after finding
that the number of passengers boarding Merpati planes in Jakarta
did not match the number of tickets sold, Aritonang said.
(04/cst)