© Vueling
Abuse of the Mallorca resident travel discount revealed
Thousands of false residency certificates were issued over the last couple of years
The police in Mallorca have made public the details of of their investigations into a scam involving a Mallorcan travel agency who has been issuing Balearic residency certificates to some of their clients who do not in fact live here.
These clients can then claim a 50% discount in travel costs to and from the islands.
Just under 4000 certificates were issued during 2011 and 2012, supposedly by the Son Servera city council in the north of Mallorca. 811 of these certificates were for people living in the Balearics, but who were not offcially registered as living here, and the remaining certificates were for people living in mainland Spain. 1000 of these were registered in Andalucia. None were actually eligible for the certificate and the related travel discount of 50% off air fares and ferry tickets.
It is estimated that the fraud has cost the government several million Euros, comprising around 28,000 air tickets and an as yet unknown number of ferry trips.
The owner of the travel agency and an employee have been arrested.
