Cyprus airways probes expense scam allegation

A HIGH-ranking Cyprus Airways employee is in hot water after reports that she was living a lavish life at the expense of the company.

According to yesterday’s Politis, the woman, who was posted in an overseas bureau, allegedly fiddled her expenses to the tune of £50,000, passing off as company expenses her own personal spending.

Cyprus Airways Spokesman Tassos Angeli yesterday told the Cyprus Mail there was an ongoing fraud investigation into the case, and added that the employee involved had been suspended pending its outcome.

If the investigation exposed foul play, then the company would take all necessary measures, he added.

Politis said the woman had been submitting receipts made out in the language of the country where she was working. All receipts were accompanied by explanations in Greek or English, written by the woman for the auditors.

Her alleged scam passed unnoticed until a ‘petrol receipt’ for the company car caught the eye of an auditor.

According to the receipt, the woman had paid $150 for petrol. After checking, the auditor found that $150 was enough to fill several cars larger than the company car in the country where the woman was working.

A translator was then called in to check what was actually written on the receipts.

Bewildered company officials discovered that receipts submitted for petrol, business lunches or gifts for travel agents, were instead for shoes, cosmetics, and other personal items.

Politis said the total amount involved in the alleged scam was around £50,000.

The paper claimed the woman was a political protégé, whose position within the company had been "tailor-made" for her.

Cyprus Airways had provided her with a house, car, and other benefits overseas, Politis said, yet the woman conducted most of her business based in Nicosia. Despite this, her salary included an overseas allowance.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.