Victims confront tour agent for Port Dickson holiday nightmare
A tour agent who had allegedly scammed 145 Singaporean tourists planning a weekend getaway to Port Dickson was confronted Monday over the incident.
The confrontation between tour agent Safarina Sapari, 36, and tour organiser Sharifah Alkaff, 45, and three of the affected tourists took place outside the Family Justice Courts two days after the tour group returned prematurely from their scheduled three-day, two-night getaway.
Over the weekend (4-6 December), four busloads of Singaporean tourists discovered that Safarina had failed to make room reservations at Lexis Hibiscus hotel as promised. More than $20,000 was paid to Safarina to settle the coach and hotel bookings.
Safarina also supposedly did not make a ballroom reservation for a performance as part of the tour package, and failed to pay the coach drivers in full.
Sharifah posted a video on her Facebook page showing the tour group having angry exchanges with Safarina, who was wearing a green top.
Click on image below for video:
In an unexpected turn of events, Safarina was later seen having what looked like bruises on her face, and escorted out of the court building into an ambulance.
Speaking to Yahoo Singapore, Sharifah denied that the group had assaulted Safarina. “She (Safarina) wasn’t bruised up when she arrived… she didn’t have bruises when she was talking to me either,” she said.
“She was about to leave in a taxi when I told her I wanted to report her to Bedok Police. She then jumped out of the taxi and was escorted back into the court building by security officers.”
When approached, Safarina refused to be interviewed.
Several police officers who were present in the premises said they will be looking at CCTV footage to investigate the matter.
Related story:
Port Dickson getaway sours over failed hotel bookings by travel agent
