A family who booked tickets to Pakistan through a Keighley travel company have been left stranded after finding out their return tickets were cancelled without their permission.
The Shan family bought nine tickets to Mirpur from A-Z Money Transfer and Travel, and flew over for a friend’s wedding in late March. They were due to fly back later this month, but when they contacted the airport to reserve seats for the flight home, they were told the money for their return tickets had been refunded and the tickets cancelled.
It has left the family, from Oldham and Kent, struggling to find another way home.
The business hit the headlines last week after angry customers descended on its North Street shop on Wednesday morning. They claimed to have lost out on thousands of pounds worth of plane tickets.
Police started an investigation into claims of fraud, and no-one has been able to get in touch with the company since.
Mohammed Shafiq owns the building but is a separate business - Legend Claims. He said he has been inundated with hundreds of calls since Wednesday from people wanting to speak to his tenants, and has no idea where they are.
The Shan family are particualy worried how they will get home, as mother Farida, 46, only has a month’s supply of her kidney medication with her in Pakistan. Bilal Shan ,20, a student at Kent University, said younger members of his family faced missing school time if they could not get back home, and he needed to get back for collage. He said the family chose A-Z because they knew people who had previously used the company.
Each ticket cost £600, and while they have been refunded the return portion, the family may need to buy expensive return fares to come home.
Speaking from the family house in Pakistan where they are staying, Bilal said: “How can they refund our tickets without our permission?
“It is going to be expensive to sort out. The children need to get back for school, and my mother only brought a month’s worth of medication. We only planned to be here a month, no-one thought something like this would happen.
“We were refunded on the April 8, something wrong is definitely going on. We have heard this has happened to other people too.”