There is a relatively common fraud between British tourists who spend their holidays abroad: they file a false report about an alleged food poisoning that makes them unable to enjoy the holidays and demand a refund of the amount of the vacation.
Hotels and tour operators, who want to avoid scandals, tend to accept quickly. But fraud is more and more detected and this method more and more persecuted. The judges also have it easy if scammers are so clumsy as an English family who filed the complaint and at the same time shared photos on Facebook that denied the family’s illness.
As collected The Sun, Christopher Byng, 38 years old, Barbara Byng, 64, Linda Lane, 36 and Anthony Byng, 66, claimed their vacation was ruined by gastric illness during their all-inclusive Jet2Holidays organized trip to the Canary Islands in November 2016.
All four said that they, and the two children they were traveling with, had suffered from various symptoms, such as stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea, headaches and cold sweats and fever, hoping to defraud the company from tens of thousands of pounds.
But during the judicial process, a series of social media posts were discovered, including images and videos of them. enjoying your vacation despite claiming to be sick.
Among other images, the family was seen enjoying the water slide, swimming in the pool and drinking at the bar, without making any reference to any illness, despite the severe symptoms that they claimed to have suffered at that time.
Christopher Byng even completed a survey after the trip, where when asked about his satisfaction level about his vacation, he said he was “very satisfied” with the choice, cleanliness and quality of the meals offered by the hotel.
He was also specifically asked if anyone had felt unwell while on vacation, but chose not to answer this question. However, answering the question “Thinking ahead, how likely is it that I will book again with Jet2holidays in the next 12 months?”, He replied “Most likely.”
All four pleaded guilty in Teesside Combined Court. When making your judgment, your judge Mark Gargan commented that “false claims for vacation sickness are too prevalent.” He also claimed that these claims “were not simply a case of exaggeration” and were a “complete invention”.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2holidays, said: “We have led the way when it comes to tackling the problem of false sickness claims, and we continue to do so. Issuing a false claim for compensation it’s a fraud, plain and simple, and we have worked hard to warn people that there are serious consequences if they choose to do so. “
“” The sentence is the latest illustration of that and sends a very harsh message. We will not hesitate to take action against fraudsters and the courts will not hesitate to punish them, “Heapy said.
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