Arthur Zacharias, fraudulent travel agent, needs more time to negotiate, court told
A travel agent who defrauded clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been given more time to sort the problem out – four years after he was first arrested.
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A fraudster travel agent who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars through fake documents needs more time to sort out his case, a court has heard.
Chief Magistrate Mary-Louise Hribal told Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday she would permit Arthur Zacharias more time to “arrange for funds for this matter to be negotiated and hopefully finalised”, despite him being first arrested four years ago.
Zacharias last year pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonest dealings with documents, 19 counts of dishonestly deal with property without consent, six counts of deceive another to benefit self and one count of deceive another to cause detriment.
The 49-year-old Parkside man last year pleaded guilty to a string of the offences but has remained in negotiations with police.
However, he has since been in negotiations with police over five of the charges.
A case was first brought in 2016 before being dropped in 2017, and pursued again last year.
The court previously heard of an “elaborate” scheme that involved false documents and the misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of dollars when Zacharias worked for eastern suburbs agency Axis Travel.
On Thursday, police told the court they were concerned the issue would still not be resolved by the next hearing.
Judge Hribal said it was “really pushing it” to ask for a further extension.
She said if the matter was not resolved in two months, she would deal with it because “enough is enough”.
The matter will return to court in November.