Greek hotel sues British couple for ‘fake’ holiday sickness claim
A Crete hotel is suing a British couple for £170,000 after they allegedly made a bogus holiday sickness claim three years after their trip.
Sean and Caroline Bondarenko told Mail Online that they are trying to drop their £10,000 claim against the hotel, which they said they only made after being contacted by a claims management company.
They insisted they had been ill, but only for one day, and had not considered making a claim until 2016 when the claims firm got in touch. They also alleged that the claims firm had exaggerated their claims in court documents.
The five-star Caldera Palace Hotel in Crete is counter-suing them for £170,000 for damage to its reputation for stating that they claimed that the resort’s food and drink made them ill.
In court documents, the Crete hotel claimed the couple enjoyed their holiday and consumed ‘large quantities’ of alcohol at the time they were supposed to have been ill, using alleged evidence from their Facebook posts made at the time.
The property’s owners, Atlantica Hotel Management, claimed the couple from Darlington who had booked their holiday with Thomson didn’t report any illness during their one-week stay in October 2013.
The UK Foreign Office began warning passengers travelling to Spain about the rise in the number of claim firms targeting Britons on popular resorts and encouraging them to make false insurance claims. It has since extended the warning to travellers to Portugal.
Fake sickness claims, mainly from British guests, are believed to be costing Spanish hoteliers around €60 million a year and UK tour operators, including Thomas Cook, are lobbying the British government to try to stop unscrupulous claims firms targeting the travel industry.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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