Police investigate family-run travel agency

Saman Bigy, Manager/Director of Dena Travel, who owes thousands of dollars to customers. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand police are assessing claims that about 150 people have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars through an Auckland family running a travel agency and money transfer business.

The family at the centre of the business identify as Persian and so do the majority of their alleged victims - some of whom told the Herald they are owed more than $110,000.

Some say they paid for travel to the Middle East but were never given their tickets or that they sent money to their family - and vice versa - that never turned up in their bank accounts.

Persian Network Ltd is registered to Afsaneh Lotfi and Vahid Ahmad Khan Bigy and operates from a premises on Dominion Rd, Mt Eden adjacent to Dena Travel, also registered to Ms Lotfi.

Her son, Saman Bigy, told the Herald he is the manager and director of Dena Travel and that about 150 people were owed money by the businesses that had "a bad day".

He said Dena Travel sold travel deals to customers and then booked their tickets through The Travel Brokers, who in turn operated through Stella Travel Services.

Mr Bigy said Dena Travel had been operating successfully for eight years but ran into trouble when its licence was cancelled in November due to around $50,000 debt owed to The Travel Brokers.

"We were paying off our debt, over eight to ten years with 10,000 passengers we never had a problem. This is a problem that has suddenly occurred.

"Any business has good days and bad days, regardless of our business practice, regardless, we are the ones affected not the people they were still travelling on the cheapest deals.

"Business, you know you can't have always the good days but it doesn't means just because you are having a bad day that you are a criminal."

Mr Bigy said that customers could get refunds through the other two entities.

"Everyone is going to get their money back," he said. "Many people have already been refunded as we speak."

Detective Sergeant Aaron Pascoe said police began looking into the issue on Wednesday after a complaint was made.

"It is up to the police to determine if this is a business that has gone bust...or is it criminal conduct," he said.

"We are still assessing the situation and we are in discussions with a third party tomorrow who have been dealing with victims because some have been eligible for refunds."

Detective Pascoe said the business had stopped operating on Thursday.

However, when the Herald visited the Dominion Rd site, there was vandalism on the store front and a group of people congregating outside who all said they had lost money through money transfers that were not delivered.

One woman said she had given the business $12,000 yesterday .

Another man, Mac Ferahi, showed the Herald documents suggesting he was owed more than $110,000 that was transferred from Iran in June.

Mr Bigy said that he was not involved in the business operations of Persian Network's money transfers and could not comment on issues associated with that.

He said his father, Vahid Bigy, ran the business and was unavailable to comment until a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing was completed later this week.