FAIRFAX, Va. -- Travel agent arbiter William McGee ruled that ARC
properly terminated the accreditation of Circle Travel Service of
Brooklyn, N.Y., last November.
The termination stemmed from an ARC audit that detected 23
tickets worth $10,414 charged to a canceled credit card, with phony
approval codes on the documents. ARC acted under a provision in the
standard ARC-agency contract that allows it to unilaterally pull an
agency's ticket stock and plates if it suspects fraud.
The owner (who was not identified) denied any deliberate
fraudulent scheme, saying the violation was an isolated instance
involving an "unscrupulous" former agent. The tickets were
subsequently paid for. The owner said he is willing to do whatever
it takes to cooperate with the airlines and settle the matter.
"I made one mistake," he told the arbiter. "I trusted someone
[who] gave a wrong credit card ... I do not feel that one mistake
should counteract 50 years of responsible service to this
industry."
McGee noted that the contract requires ARC to spot conduct that
might be fraudulent and does not require proof of intentional
fraud.
"Although the owner appears to have been the innocent victim,"
the violations justified ARC's actions at the time of the audit,
McGee said. "There is nothing in the record to suggest any prior
problem at all in this [agency's] compliance history," he said.
Nevertheless, by its own admissions, Circle Travel " erred
sufficiently in this one case so as to support ARC's demand [for
stock and plates] and subsequent termination," he said.