The County Court handed down a three-year prison sentence to the owner of a travel agency in Alicante after finding that the business scammed roughly 200,000 euros from 162 clients who paid for flights to the Americas but never received the tickets. The judgment, issued by the First Section, aligns with the agreement accepted by the Attorney General, the prosecution, and the defense counsel.
Defendant Juan Pablo MZ admitted guilt during the trial following a consent agreement, and the initial seven-year term requested by prosecutors was reduced to three years. The court also ruled that Agur Viajes, the agency involved, would bear subsidiary civil liability and ordered its temporary closure amid the scandal.
Court records show that the agency, located on José Gutiérrez Petén street in Alicante, operated by arranging travel between the Americas and Spain. A significant portion of the clients were Hispanic American residents who used Agur Viajes to secure flights to their country of origin.
The agency’s operations appeared normal until the summer of 2019, when it began selling tickets to clients that they did not actually obtain. In multiple cases, the owner made ticket reservations and issued a document indicating payment had been completed. Clients paid the agreed sums, and the owner claimed the flights had already been settled. In reality, only reservations existed and no payment was delivered to the airlines—the funds never reached the carriers.
Fraudulent intent and consequences
The record notes that the defendant acted with a clearly fraudulent purpose. The money involved was seized, causing economic harm to buyers who were left without confirmed tickets. Victims could not travel, since the purchases were only pre-bookings, and the tickets were not issued or paid for.
The scheme ended in November when victims realized their tickets were absent and the owner could not provide them. Police arrested the defendant after a flood of complaints from those affected.
The court emphasized that most of the victims had limited financial resources, with 162 individuals identified as fraud victims. The total amount defrauded, as acknowledged by the defendant, was 200,409 euros.
Individual losses and impact on families
Court documents list individual losses that varied widely. For example, a single complainant reported payments for several plane tickets totaling amounts that ranged from 300 to 4,462 euros. When the scam became public, many victims gathered outside the agency’s premises for days, seeking remedies for their serious travel disruptions. They joined forces to file criminal complaints, while some affected customers expressed distress over plans to spend holidays abroad that never materialized because of the fraud.
As authorities investigated, affected people recounted how they had saved money for extended periods to reunite with relatives during Christmas travel, only to find themselves unable to travel due to the unresolved bookings. These revelations underscored the broad human impact behind the financial loss, extending beyond the immediate economic damage to a disruption of family plans and community ties in Alicante.
In the wake of the ruling, the case serves as a cautionary tale about verifying flight purchases and the importance of reliable consumer protections within the travel industry. It also highlights the responsibilities of agencies to ensure that funds are actually transferred to airlines and that tickets are issued promptly to prevent similar distress in the future. The decision remains part of a wider conversation about consumer rights and the need for robust oversight of travel service providers in the region. [Court decision attribution]