An unscrupulous travel agent from the southern suburbs of Sydney has confessed to orchestrating a deceitful operation that disrupted overseas vacations while earning her over $77,000 illicitly.

Zahra Rachid, who managed Travel World in Arncliffe, orchestrated a scheme where she arranged flights to popular destinations like Portugal, Greece, Lebanon, and Iran for her clients, only to later cancel these reservations and keep the refunds for herself.

Rachid has admitted to defrauding eight clients over the years 2023 and 2024, pleading guilty to the charges.

Many of her victims only uncovered the deceit when they attempted to confirm their travel details directly with the airlines before embarking on their journeys abroad.

In one particularly distressing case, a traveler learned that his flight to Athens was nonexistent only upon reaching Sydney International Airport, ready to embark on a five-week vacation to Greece, only to be informed at the check-in desk that his booking had been voided.

His daughter and Etihad employees tried repeatedly to contact the travel agent, but they couldn’t reach her.

He had paid Rachid $2499 for the Etihad flight in February 2024 and picked up the ticket, but she cancelled the booking the same day.

Another victim paid Rachid more than $50,000 in October 2023 to book business class flights and accommodation for a family trip to Lebanon and Portugal.

Then, just days before Christmas that year, Rachid cancelled the booking through the third party flight consolidator Airtickets and emailed Emirates to try and speed up the refund.

The customer only discovered his bookings were cancelled the following year and never got his money back from the travel agent.

According to agreed facts tendered in court, Rachid’s travel agency was in financial crisis when she embarked on the scheme, with the company’s bank account in negative balance on 837 occasions between January 2023 and June 2024.

The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to eight counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

She had been facing 82 charges, but 72 were previously withdrawn and dismissed.

She’ll be sentenced in Downing Local Court in January.