A fraudster conned holidaymakers into paying for fake Covid ‘fit to fly’ certificates at the height of the pandemic.
Saranjeet Kandola advertised company Travel Test Solutions on social media and charged up to £149 per test.
She even visited clients’ homes to take swabs.
But the kits were never checked in any laboratory, making the certificates issued ‘meaningless’, a court heard.
The mum-of-three scammed at least 47 clients and earned £5,000.
She set the firm up in the name of her ex-husband and used a fake Care Quality Commission number on certificates to give them legitimacy.
Kandola was snared when a client contacted a lab in December 2020 to query the results.
The matter was then referred to trading standards officers at Warwickshire County Council.
The 41-year-old admitted fraud at Coventry Crown Court, where she was jailed for two years and banned from being a company director for seven years.
Natalie Berman, mitigating, said Kandola, of Leamington Spa, accepted her actions were despicable.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said during sentencing: ‘In December 2020, 70,000 people had died in the UK.
‘A worse death count was only avoided by brutal lockdowns that separated families and ruined businesses.
‘You were prepared to risk spreading this deadly disease to make money.
‘It is difficult to think of a more contemptuous way to undermine the sacrifice made by others.’
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