LONDON, 20 February — Authorities have allowed 83 British pilgrims to board a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane bound for Jeddah after it was learned that they had been cheated by a bogus travel agent, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper said in a report published today.
Some 200 pilgrims had reached an agreement with a travel agent in the UK city of Leeds to make their journey to Makkah after paying more than $420,000. They learned in the last moment that the agent had fled with their money.
The agent had not made any reservations for the pilgrims who were issued fake air tickets, the paper said.
