A former Spirit Airlines employee faces prison time for her role in a flight-changing scam that cost the airline almost $265,000.
Taylor Thompson pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud. The former Spirit Airlines employee was sentenced on Thursday, where she has to serve two months in a federal detention center and pay restitution to the airline.
Thompson worked as a customer service supervisor in May 2017, according to the court documents. In December 2017, Thompson started using her booking system passcode to change flights for certain passengers, and at the same time waiving the fees associated with the change of flight.
Flight-Changing Scam
According to court records, the flight-changing scam involved Thompson booking short and cheap flights for friends and family. Then, she would change the flight to a farther destination. She then uses her passcode, in effect, waiving the additional cost for the passenger.
A court document submitted by Thompson’s lawyer admitted that she had started charging a fee. The document said, “Admittedly, she then began charging a fee — usually $50-$100 at a time — to rebook such flights for other individuals, resulting in a total loss of $88,229.65 over a seven-month period to Spirit Airlines.”
The total amount of money collected by Thompson from her charges reached more than $20,500 according to prosecutors. This involved more than 562 modified flight reservations.
Other Employees Joined the Flight-Changing Scam
It wasn’t long until other employees joined Thompson. Other Spirit Airlines employees began using her passcode giving free changes to flight itineraries.
However, in 2018, Thompson was fired because of an unrelated incident to the flight-changing scam. She was fired “for lack of professionalism after she became involved in a heated exchange with another supervisor.”
After Thompson was fired, other customer service agents then turned to Sabrina Lebron, who was another supervisor. Lebron’s credentials were then used to change flights and the scam continued.
By August 2018, Spirit discovered the scheme. During this time, the scam involved five employees. The group modified 1,600 flight reservations for a total of almost $265,000 in losses for Spirit.
Other Employees Charged
Lebron, along with customer service agents Karina Worthem, Tiana Fairfax, and Theodore Robinson, were charged. Robinson, who made $7,500 was sentenced to three years’ probation and six months of home detention. Then, Fairfax, who made $40,000 was sentenced to six months in prison. However, sentencing for Worthem and Lebron is expected in March.
Thompson faced a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment per charge. This would have been 60 years, plus paying restitution.
