Maryland Agent Pleads Guilty

A Maryland travel agent has pleaded guilty to bilking about 60 people out of thousands of dollars through fraudulent claims that he would get them tickets and a charter bus trip to the "Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago, several news agencies are reporting. Terrance M. Hawkins, 45, of Royal Travel and Royal Stages Travel Group, accepted the payments between December 2004 and April 2005, according to published reports. The "Oprah Winfrey Show" is actually free on a first-come, first-serve basis. Under the court settlement, Hawkins is paying the money back to his victims, mostly senior citizens, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press.