AN alleged fraudster who ran an online flight booking business left a bride-to-be on the way to her wedding stranded at an airport, a court heard.

Khalid Chudhry said he would provide victim Esther Adekanmbi with flights to Lagos in Nigeria, a jury was told.

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But after paying an initial deposit, Preston Crown Court heard Chudhry called the victim the following day and told her the £700 price quoted had risen by £910.

As she was due to marry the day after the flight Miss Adekanmbi agreed to pay, the court heard.

But when she turned up at Heathrow Airport to collect her tickets from the Cheap Flight Holidays counter she found it did not exist and was left stranded.

The jury was told Chudhry offered his customers cheap long haul flights through his online company Cheap Flight Holidays Ltd and took payments without ever booking the flights.

When customers rang up to enquire where their tickets were, they were either told the price had gone up, or Chudhry would use other ‘delaying tactics’.

The court heard the total fraud amounted to more than £13,500 and involved more than14 victims.

But prosecutor Francis McEntee suggested the amount could have been far higher.

Mr McEntee told jurors that Chudhry, 47, of Tenby Close, Blackburn, had told police he acted as a ‘middle man’ and booked tickets through larger companies.

Chudhry was said to have told police he made just £20 off each flight booking, the jury heard.

But one bank account registered to Chudhry showed an annual income of £223,717 and a difference in expenditure of £58,066.

Mr McEntee said if that was the case Chudhry would have booked 2,903 flights with an average ticket price of £77.

The court heard a second account linked to the business showed an income of £42,900 and an expenditure of £17,600, giving an average ticket price of £33.98.

Mr McEntee said: “He couldn’t make the figures add up because the profit that was being made was the process of this systematic fraud.”

Jurors were told the fraud took place between September 2012 and November 2013 and involved customers mainly wanting to book flights to Nigeria.

The amounts allegedly ‘scammed’ ranged from £25 to £2,200.

Mr McEntee said Chudhry advertised discounted flights on his website www.cheapflightholidays.co.uk.

On it the company claimed to be ATOL protected, meaning the customer would be insured against any issues with flights or airline providers going out of business, when it wasn’t.

The court heard customers could not book flights directly from the website and either had to send an email enquiry or telephone Cheap Flight Holidays direct.

Jurors were told the customer would then be transferred to a call centre is Pakistan, whose operators used fake names including Nick Freeman, and would negotiate a price on flights.

Mr McEntee said once a deposit had been paid customers were later telephoned and told the price had gone up or there had been a problem with the deposit which meant the flight had never been booked.

Mr McEntee said some people did receive their tickets but that was so Chudhry could set up links with larger companies to gain access to their bookings systems and seem legitimate to prospective customers.

Mr McEntee said: “The crown’s case is the defendant was running a scam.

“He was running an online business luring people to pay for tickets for flights when the seats on the flights had never been booked. Then arguing with customers and more often than not refusing to return the money when people raised objections.

“The method of fraud was so systematic you can conclude the call handlers were operating under the defendant’s control and his direction.

Mr McEntee said Chudhry would tell the jury the reason some customers didn’t receive their tickets was because some of his business accounts had been frozen by the banks and he was therefore unable to trade with other companies.

Chudhry denies 14 counts of fraud and one count of carrying on the business of a company for a fraudulent purpose.

The trial continues.