A travel agent who cheated Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo out of nearly £250,000 has been handed a four-year suspended prison sentence.
The 53-year-old, named in Portugal as Maria Silva, also scammed the football star's super-agent Jorge Mendes out of more than £14,000 and former Man U winger Nani out of more than £1,500.
Her wrongdoing culminated in her getting a four-year suspended prison sentence at a court in Porto, respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported on Sunday.
The newspaper revealed dad-of-four Cristiano, 36, was spared having to attend her trial after she made a full confession.
The previously-unreported scandal was laid bare by Jornal de Noticias in an expose about greedy Silva's breach of the trust Cristiano placed in her by giving her his credit card details and pin codes.
A travel agent who cheated Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo out of nearly £250,000 has been handed a four-year suspended prison sentence
The newspaper said the £245,770 she scammed him out of corresponded to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US
The 53-year-old, named in Portugal as Maria Silva, also scammed the football star's super-agent Jorge Mendes (right) out of more than £14,000 and former Man U winger Nani (left) out of more than £1,500
The newspaper said the £245,770 she scammed him out of corresponded to around 200 trips he never made between Portugal and other European countries as well as Europe and Africa and the US.
She reportedly carried out the fraud by getting clients to transfer cash for travel she arranged for them to her personal account instead of the business account of the travel agency she worked for.
She then billed those trips to the accounts of victims like Cristiano Ronaldo, who had given her a 'virtual' credit card and pin code, to 'fill the hole' in her company's accounts, the report in Jornal de Noticias said.
The newspaper reported she used the same tactic to rip off the likes of Jorge Mendes, his sports agency Gestifute, Nani and former Portsmouth and Everton footballer Manuel Fernandes.
The fraud cost Fernandes £2,440 and Gestifute £6,000.
Silva's firm Geostar is said to have repaid the fraud victims the money wrongly taken from them and she agreed to pay back monthly compensation to her old employers to avoid going to prison.
Cristiano was targeted between in a three-year period between February 2007 and July 2010 when he was playing for Manchester United first-time round and then Real Madrid following his record £80 million transfer to Spain.
The five-times Ballon D'or winner gave a statement to police
