Travevo Consulting fraud case details how Smart Flights allegedly issued fake UK job offers and failed to refund over N41 million
A Lagos-based travel and migration agency, Travevo Consulting Limited, has taken Smart Flights Partners Limited (SFPL) and its managing director, Mr Alexander Anyanwu, to court over alleged fraud and false pretence.
According to court documents, Travevo Consulting fraud case arose after the firm engaged SFPL in July 2022 to secure job placements and Certificates of Sponsorship (COS) in the United Kingdom for fourteen of its clients and their dependents.
The company stated that it paid a total of N33,377,000 to SFPL in stages but later discovered that the COS documents provided were fake and rejected by the UK Embassy.
Travevo alleged that the supposed UK employers connected to the sponsorships denied ever hiring or processing visas for any Nigerian applicant under the deal.
The agency accused Mr Anyanwu of refusing to refund the full payment, saying he instead proposed to return only a partial amount, which Travevo declined.
Court filings also reveal that after the initial police report in 2022, Mr Anyanwu signed an agreement to refund the money in instalments but never made any payment.
Following this, he reportedly filed a fundamental human rights action against the petitioner and the police, claiming he was humiliated and tortured during questioning, which allegedly made him ill.
The CEO of Travevo countered that claim, stating that Mr Anyanwu was treated respectfully during his visit to the police station and was not detained at any point.
The case was later struck out by the court, with a judgment awarding N500,000 in favour of Travevo Consulting.
The petitioner further alleged that Mr Anyanwu later initiated fresh cases in Owerri, Imo State, and Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, as a deliberate attempt to frustrate her with travel and legal costs.
Her lawyer, based in Calabar, reportedly travelled multiple times for hearings only to find the courts adjourned or not sitting.
Travevo maintains that over N41 million remains unreturned and insists that Smart Flights and its director have failed to pay back a single naira despite several legal and police interventions.
The petition now before the court seeks a full refund and prosecution under the Criminal Law of Lagos State and the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act.
Also read: Access holdings fraud loss soars to ₦1.64bn
When contacted, Mr Anyanwu declined to comment, stating, “If you understand how this is done, you will know that I cannot give any comment because the matter is already in court.”
Source: Read more at thesun.ng
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
