ATLANTA — Dozens of victims are out thousands of dollars in cities around the country in a local plane ticket scheme.
Quintavius Beard's scheme to sell bogus airline buddy passes preyed on would-be travelers hoping to save money on last-minute flights.
"I just thought maybe he needs money, and I need a ticket and that was it," one victim told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer. "We were supposed to travel last-minute to California."
The Fulton County woman responded to Beard's post on Craigslist in 2008, and then agreed to meet him in person. He showed up wearing a Delta Airlines jacket, took down her personal information and then entered it online.
"We confirmed it before we gave him the money. It was confirmed. It was a good ticket," said the victim.
She was even able to log onto Delta's website and see it for herself.
But the night before her flight, she logged on and the reservation was gone. It had not been paid for.
Beard had scammed her for $450.
He pleaded guilty but the judge gave him probation, and records show he was right back at it again.
"If you're successful and people are sending you money, why would you stop?" said Fulton County police Capt. Wade Yates. "Financial crimes are looked at as nonviolent crimes and so they don't get punished as bad."
Court records show a Clayton County judge sentenced Beard to more probation in 2010, after officers caught him at the airport with “confirmed fraudulent Delta airline tickets to sell to victims.”
Then a Fulton County judge added even more probation after Beard scammed an Atlanta woman out of $600 with the same scheme.
"We catch them doing one then there's probably dozens if not 50 more victims out there," said Yates.
A Channel 2 Action News investigation found Beard's name and aliases all over an online complaints board.
At least 17 people claim he scammed them too.
One Illinois victim lost $1,000, two California victims lost a total of $700, and victims all over Georgia reported losing thousands.
Three months ago, Rollan Marsee became a victim in McDonough.
"I guess he's been doing it a long time," Marsee told Channel 2.
Marsee didn't find that message board until after Beard had scammed him out of $180.
"At 10 o'clock the night before I'm checking, fixing to print out [his wife's] stuff, and there's not a flight. It's gone. There's no record of it," said Marsee, "I felt like I dropped the ball, because it was my idea to use the Craigslist."
The Marsees had checked the Delta website and seen the confirmation prior to paying Beard using a Green Dot MoneyPak card.
They had never met him in person so they didn't know his real name, only the phone number he texted from.
But Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer was able to tie Beard to the Marsees' case, because Beard had texted her from the same phone number.
Fleischer began investigating Beard two months ago, first via the same email address victims had posted on the message board.
Beard said he preferred to communicate via text message, and began texting trying to organize payment.
The scammer repeatedly tried to avoid meeting Fleischer in person, repeating several times that he was out of town working as a Delta flight attendant. Fleischer insisted on a face-to-face meeting.
Weeks later, he finally agreed, although he told Fleischer it would be his roommate handling the meeting instead.
Fleischer contacted Fulton County police, who had worked the original case against Beard.
They launched a new criminal investigation. For that, and safety reasons, undercover officers took over the case, and met with Beard in a gas station parking lot.
"It's two emails that you should be receiving," Beard said to the undercover officers while being recorded. "You'll be able to log in, do all your booking."
After Beard took an envelope full of cash, the officers moved in to make the arrest, his fourth for theft by deception.
Fleischer asked Beard if he had anything to say to the people whose money he stole.
"I didn't take nobody's money," Beard replied.
Beard denied selling fake airline passes, but in court he asked the judge if he could plead guilty.
"Well you can't plead guilty to it here, it's in Fulton County," replied Clayton County Judge Morris Braswell.
Beard was apparently mixing up his many cases. He was before Braswell for violating probation in an earlier case. Braswell sentenced him to 9 months in jail after hearing details of Channel 2's investigation.
"We did locate approximately 10 different email accounts, which did state he had companion passes or buddy passes for sale," Fulton County police Officer Jennifer Jones testified in court.
Jones was one of the officers who worked undercover, and later got a warrant for information on Beard's cellphone.
But when he did finally land back in a Fulton County courtroom, for yet another probation violation on an earlier ticket scheme, Fulton County Judge Joann Bowens simply continued Beard's probation with no punishment at all.
The Fulton County solicitor is still deciding what to do with Beard's new case, so once he finishes his jail sentence in Clayton County he'll likely be released.
The severity of Beard's scheme was not lost on Clayton County Solicitor Tasha Mosely. During his hearing there, she told Judge Braswell, "We think as soon as he gets back out there, he's going to continue to scam citizens."
Marsee is hoping something will change, "Unfortunately, they're getting away with this kind of thing. Hopefully we can put an end to it."
WSBTV
