The Traitors star Maia Gouveia was caught apparently using a company credit card after being sacked from her job for going AWOL on holiday in Trinidad, Daily Mail reports.
Daily Mail reported that the BBC contestant, Maia Gouveia, 25, was employed by gifting company Bubblegum Stuff as their social media manager last year but was fired after three months when she suddenly stopped showing up to work.
According to the report, Maia Gouveia, whose sister Armani, 28, appeared alongside her on the hit TV series before being exposed as a Traitor, failed to notify her bosses of a holiday to Trinidad in February 2024, which led to her contract being terminated.
It was six months after she left the business, which is owned by Apprentice 2016 runner-up Courtney Wood, 38, that Maia apparently used the company credit card without authorisation to make several purchases having saved the details to her personal Apple Pay.
The credit card was immediately blocked and the incident reported to the police, with Maia later claiming the charges to the card were made accidentally.
Maia Gouveia who boasts 152.7K followers on TikTok, stars on the current season of The Traitors, presented by Claudia Winkleman, 52, and was stunned after discovering co-star and sister Armani had been working in secret to murder fellow game players.
A source close to Maia Gouveia told Daily Mail that: ‘Maia is deeply regretful for the mistakes she made during her employment with Bubblegum Stuff and her actions afterwards.
‘She was going through a tough time as a new mother and wishes she behaved differently.
‘Maia’s father visited the Bubblegum Stuff offices to make amends after the credit incident was exposed while Courtney decided against taking the matter any further.’
The mother, who’s pregnant with her second baby, is one of 25 contestants on The Traitors this year competing for a potential £120,000 prize pot.
Her older sister Armani worked undercover as one of three Traitors but was banished during Friday night’s instalment.
Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted she was 60 per cent sure her sister was a Traitor and the cast voted to eliminate her from the competition.
Speaking ahead of her appearance on the show, Maia confessed to being a ‘natural liar’ and was inspired to sign up after watching previous series and feeling she could do better.
She said: ‘I binge watched the last series when it aired, and I was so invested. I always thought to myself, I could do it better. I literally was thinking you guys aren’t lying properly, you’re not lying correctly, there are too many emotions going on, this is money.
‘So yeah, one was that I felt like I could do it better. The second one was the money. My daughter is going to nursery soon and that’s expensive. It’s like having a mortgage, so that was also a motivator.
‘I am also a very competitive person in general. Growing up, I was a natural liar. And then I stopped lying, because my family said it was getting really bad. I would always blame my sisters. So, I went the opposite way and I got really, really blunt instead. And it was blunt on the borderline of being rude.
‘So, I’ve had to learn how to assess what’s good to say, what’s not good to say. Now I’m kind of excited to be able to lie again, if I’m being honest. I’m excited to be able to twist some stories and make up things and that will be kind of fun.’
Wednesday night’s episode will show the return of three contestants who were sacrificed on the train to Ardross Castle.
Ex-British diplomat Alexander, 38, outreach manager Fozia, 50, and market trader and landscaper Jack, 24, make a dramatic comeback after volunteering to leave the competition before the game had even begun.
It is The Traitors’ job to secretly murder their fellow players, without getting caught and it’s up to the others, the Faithful, to try to detect who the Traitors are, and banish them from the game, before they become their next victim.
Last year’s series saw Traitor Harry Clark win the money after successfully convincing Mollie Pearce he was a Faithful.
The former British Army Engineer, 22, manipulated the group to win a total £95,000, saying his tactic was to only be a Traitor when he was wearing the cloak.