WATCH ABOVE: A Toronto travel agent has been charged under the province’s Travel Industry Act amid allegations she is operating without proper registration. As Sean O’Shea reports, the charge follows a Global News story and at least 30 complaints she took money for travel that was not booked.
TORONTO — A Toronto travel agent has been charged under Ontario’s Travel Industry Act, just days after a Global News report exposing how she accepted money for travel but didn’t provide actual tickets.
Carolyn Solomon has been charged with one count of operating as a travel agent without registration.
She is scheduled to appear in Provincial Offences Court on Oct. 8.
READ MORE: Family paid $10k for vacation, but travel agent didn’t deliver
“Ms. Solomon is acting illegally,” said Richard Smart, Registrar of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).
His agency, which regulates the act on behalf of the Ontario government, brought the charge after the Global News story.
He said the council has received about 30 complaints from consumers about Solomon and Blue Mountain Travel on Jane Street.
“There may be future charges against Ms. Solomon; she’s been advised accordingly,” said Smart, adding that TICO has tried to stop Solomon from selling travel using “moral suasion and the legislation as effectively as we can.”
Global News first became aware of issues at the travel agency by Judith Robinson of Brampton, whose family paid Solomon more than $10,000 for an all-inclusive vacation for ten in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Although Solomon had been paid for travel in full using credit cards, the family found out close to their scheduled departure that they did not have airline tickets or reservations at the resort hotel.
“I think she needs to be closed down, she needs to be out of business,” said Robinson.
TICO told Global News that Blue Mountain Travel was not allowed to operate after July 31 and doing so is a violation of the Act.
Orville Skyers was a long-time customer at Blue Mountain Travel and said he frequently booked flights with Solomon.
But on the weekend, having paid for return travel for himself and his son to Jamaica, he found out at the airport that his return flight back to Toronto was not valid.
“The [airline] supervisor came back and said, ‘the ticket is cancelled out.’ I said, ‘It can’t be.'”
Skyers says he had to pay almost $1,100 USD to get home. He says he stood to lose a week’s wages if he did not show up to work on Monday.
“I was mad,” said Skyers, adding that when he looked around at the ticket line in Jamaica others were in the same situation.
Consumers who did not receive promised travel or who had to pay extra for additional flights are eligible to make a claim against the Travel Industry Council’s compensation fund.
“Our first priority are the consumers impacted — we are trying to address that situation,” said Smart.
“I feel terrible for the consumers affected. There’s nothing worse than having plans cancelled because of an unscrupulous operator.”
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