Heartbreak As Ronaldo Gets Scammed R5M by Travel Agent After Trusting Her With Credit Card Pin
- Cristiano Ronaldo trusted a female travel agent with the pin and code of his credit card and he was heavily scammed
- Reports have it that 53-year-old Maria Silva stole close to £250,000 from the 36-year-old Manchester United striker
- She has however been handed a four-year suspended prison sentence having confessed to the criminal act
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Several news outlets are reporting that Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo was scammed a staggering £250,000 by a female travel agent after he trusted her with his credit card pin, SunSport reports.
The culprit is a 53-year-old Maria Silva, as reports further claim she also scammed the player’s agent Jorge Mendes out of over £14,000 as well as more than £1,500 from former Man Utd winger Nani.
Maria Silva’s offence saw her handed a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto according to famous Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias.
Read also
Heartbroken Cristiano Ronaldo releases statement after ‘best friend’ Jose Semedo loses wife
Source: UGC
The newspaper gathered that Cristiano Ronaldo was initially billed to attend her trial, but the striker was spared after she made full confession.
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The five-time Ballon d’Or winner provided statement to the police after he flew to Porto in a private jet to meet with his lawyer Carlos Osorio de Castro.
The newspaper said the €288,000 she scammed him out of - £245,770 - corresponded to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US.
According to the player’s former teammate in the Portugal national team Simao Sabrosa, Ronaldo was among the victims that Maria transferred their cash into her private account instead of a company account as part of her fraud.
The statement added via Mirror:
“Afterwards the travel agent had to plug the hole in the firm’s accounts.
“She therefore began to bill those trips to Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an account at Geostar and for practical reasons, handed the agent a virtual credit card and pin code.”
Solskjaer spotted acting like Mourinho after reaction to West Ham's last-minute penalty against Man Utd
In other news, Briefly News recently reported that the Norwegian manager was furious at the last-minute penalty decision awarded to West Ham by referee Martin Atkinson after Luke Shaw handled the ball inside the box.
Solskjaer smashed a water bottle on the ground to show his displeasure at the penalty decision made by the referee.
The Hammer had gone in front through Said Benrahma on the half-hour mark before Cristiano Ronaldo equalized minutes later.
Source: Briefly News
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
Tshepiso Mametela (Head of Current Affairs Desk) Tshepiso Mametela is a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience writing for online and print publications. He is the Head of Current Affairs at Briefly News. He was a mid-level reporter for The Herald, a senior sports contributor at Opera News SA, and a general reporter for Caxton Local Media’s Bedfordview and Edenvale News and Joburg East Express community titles. He has attended media workshops organised by the Wits Justice Project and Wits Centre for Journalism, including crime and court reporting. Email: tshepiso.mametela@briefly.co.za
