Woman offered 700 ‘fake’ UK jobs

Police on Monday arrested a 34-year-old woman who allegedly went “town to town” across five provinces in Luzon to dupe some 700 people with promises of nonexistent jobs in the United Kingdom and Canada.

About a hundred of them so far have lodged complaints against Grace Bautista, who was cornered in an entrapment operation at the travel agency she owns in Ermita, Manila.

Bautista, a resident of Sommerset Condominium, Leveriza Street, Pasay City, lured hundreds of job seekers by going from town to town in Luzon starting in August last year, according to Chief Inspector Carlo Magno Manuel, leader of Western Metro Manila Criminal Investigation and Detection Team of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Bautista was arrested at around 5 p.m. inside the Raheema Travel and Tours office at the corner of Mabini and Flores Streets in Malate.

Upon learning of the woman’s arrest, some of the complainants arrived in passenger jeepneys Tuesday at the CIDG Manila office inside the Manila Police District (MPD) headquarters along UN Avenue.

“These complainants came from the provinces of Batangas, Isabela, Quezon, Bulacan and Tuguegarao City (Cagayan). They claimed that (Bautista) promised to land them jobs as housekeepers, hotel receptionists, nurses and drivers if they paid her amounts ranging from P10,000 to P15,000,” Manuel told the Inquirer.

“They were convinced by Bautista that she could find them high-paying jobs in Canada and the UK before the first week of November 2011 or the first week of February this year if they come up with the amount supposedly for their physical examination,” Manuel said.

Bautista allegedly received the money from her victims from August to December 2011 at four different diagnostic centers in the Ermita and Malate districts.

Later, Bautista asked for an additional P500 from each of the applicants supposedly for their tourist visas, claiming that it was the final requirement before they could leave the country.