Traitor star Maia Gouveia was apparently caught using a company credit card after she was fired from her job for vacationing in Trinidad.
The 25-year-old BBC contestant was employed by gift company Bubblegum Stuff last year as a social media manager, but was fired after three months when she suddenly stopped showing up for work.
Maia, whose sister Armani, 28, appeared alongside her in the hit TV series before being exposed as a traitor, failed to notify her bosses about a holiday to Trinidad in February 2024, leading to her contract was terminated.
It was six months after she left the company, owned by Apprentice 2016 runner-up Courtney Wood, 38, that Maia apparently used the company’s credit card without permission to make several purchases after leaving the details in her personal Apple Pay had saved.
The credit card was immediately blocked and a police report was made, with Maia later claiming that the charges on the card had been made by mistake.
Maia, who has 152.7k followers on TikTok, stars in the current season of The Traitors, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, 52, and was stunned to discover that co-star and sister Armani had secretly worked to kill co-stars.
Traitor star Maia Gouveia was apparently caught using a company credit card after being fired from her job for vacationing in Trinidad
The BBC contestant was employed by the charity Bubblegum Stuff as their social media manager, but was fired after three months when she suddenly stopped showing up for work
Maia’s sister Armani was banned from the match on Friday after her fellow players exposed her as a traitor
A source close to Maia said: ‘Maia deeply regrets the mistakes she made during her tenure at Bubblegum Stuff and her actions afterwards.
‘She was going through a difficult time as a new mother and wished she behaved differently.
‘Maia’s father visited the Bubblegum Stuff office to make amends after the credit incident came to light, while Courtney decided not to pursue the matter further.’
The mother, who is pregnant with her second child, is one of 25 entrants in this year’s The Traitors competing for a potential prize pool of £120,000.
Her older sister Armani worked undercover as one of the three traitors, but was banished during Friday night’s episode.
Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted that she was 60 percent sure her sister was a traitor and the cast voted to remove her from the competition.
Ahead of her appearance on the show, Maia confessed that she was a ‘natural liar’ and was inspired to sign up after watching previous series and feeling like she could do better.
She said: “I watched the last series when it aired and I was so invested. I always thought to myself: I can do that better. I literally thought you guys don’t lie well, you guys don’t lie well, there’s too many emotions going on, this is money.
MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for the Traitors for comment.
Courtney Wood, owner of gift company Bubblegum Stuff, was a runner-up on The Apprentice in 2016 and hired Maia as his social media manager last year
Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted she was 60 percent sure her sister was a traitor and the cast voted to remove her from the competition
Maia sobbed after realizing that her instincts were correct and that Armani had been working undercover to secretly kill the Believers.
The sisters revealed their connection from the start rather than choosing to secretly work together in an attempt to win the prize pool
“So yeah, one was I felt like I could do better. The second was the money. My daughter is going to daycare soon and that is expensive. It’s like a mortgage, so that was also a motivator.
‘I’m 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 became very blunt instead. And it was borderline rude.
“So I’ve had to learn to judge what’s good to say and what’s not good to say. Now I’m pretty excited to be able to lie again, if I’m honest. I’m excited to be able to twist some stories and make things up, and that’ll be quite fun.”
Wednesday night’s episode features the return of three contestants who were sacrificed on the train to Ardross Castle.
Former British diplomat Alexander, 38, outreach manager Fozia, 50, and market trader and landscaper Jack, 24, are making a dramatic comeback after voluntarily leaving the competition before the game had even started.
It is the job of The Traitors to secretly kill their fellow players without getting caught, and it is up to the others, the Faithful, to try to discover who the Traitors are and banish them from the game before they become their next victim.
In last year’s series, traitor Harry Clark won the money after successfully convincing Mollie Pearce that he was a believer.
The former British army engineer, 22, manipulated the group to win a total of £95,000, saying his tactic was to only be a traitor when he wore the mantle.