Brit couple fined over Benidorm fake sickness claim
Thursday, March 22, 2018 @ 1:03 AM
TWO British tourists who filed a fake sickness claim after a holiday in Benidorm have been ordered to pay €17,200 in compensation to the travel operator, TUI.
Jamie Melling and his girlfriend Chelsea Devine, from Liverpool, are the latest Brits to be caught inventing a claim for food poisoning to get their money back on their holiday, although so far tens of thousands of complaints, with the sole aim of obtaining compensation, have been made against Spanish hotels.
Touts driving vans with ambulance signs and slogans asking if trippers want a free holiday have been seen in the Canary Islands over the last year or so, and actually approach British tourists to encourage them to put in claims.
They only have to show a purchase receipt for a box of diarrhoea tablets.
British Prime Minister Theresa May pledged last summer to crack down on the scam, which has left many resorts running the risk of going out of business.
Hotel bosses say they only ever seem to get claims from British holidaymakers, never from any other European tourists.
Ms Devine, 21 and Mr Melling, 22 claimed €2,800 each from TUI, which would automatically be recovered from the hotel or resort in question, but a judge in Liverpool commented that they continued posting selfies of their trip in which they seemed healthy and happy.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com