Hotel employee convicted of misappropriating Wi‑Fi sales proceeds: sentence upheld

The Cyprus Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a hotel receptionist in the Famagusta district who was found guilty of misappropriating proceeds from the sale of wireless internet access. The investigation and subsequent conviction were based on electronic data from the Wi‑Fi ticket sales system.

According to the case file, the offences were committed between April and October 2015. The defendant was among the reception staff entrusted with arranging and selling internet access to hotel guests.

The investigation began after the hotel’s managing company identified discrepancies between the ticketing system data and the receipts recorded in the accounts. An analysis carried out showed numerous instances of Wi‑Fi tickets being issued and used without the corresponding payments being registered.

The court found that the woman was linked to 71 ticket sales incidents during periods when she was working alone at reception. In 51 cases, the tickets were priced at 15 euros each. The total loss amounted to 765 euros.

The defence sought to challenge the reliability of the electronic accounting system and pointed to possible technical faults. However, the court noted that the prosecution relied solely on those cases where the actual use of the tickets and the absence of funds being credited to the hotel’s accounts had been established.

An argument that the trial had been excessively lengthy was also dismissed. Although the case was registered back in 2016 and the first-instance ruling was not issued until 2023, the Court of Appeal concluded that the delays were due to the complexity of the case, the volume of evidence, the search for witnesses and the consequences of the pandemic.

Taking into account the absence of prior convictions, the defendant’s health condition and the time that had passed since the offences were committed, she had previously been given a suspended sentence of six months’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeal found no grounds to revisit the decision and fully upheld the sentence.