Spain hotels may ban UK tourists over illness scam
BRITISH families may be banned by Spanish hotels over bogus food poisoning claims said to have cost the travel industry there more than £40million.
Rogue claims firms are using touts to encourage tourists to make fake illness allegations on the basis they can win payouts of as much as £5,000 per person.
The touts are touring hotspots in vans or sending representatives to stop tourists outside their hotels or even on the beaches.
In one shocking example last September a firm was using an ambulance with the words ‘claims clinic’ on the side at resorts in Tenerife.
People are being told they can make a claim based on little more evidence than a receipt for a diar- rhoea remedy from a resort chemist. Individuals who have made bogus claims could be blacklisted by holiday companies and hotels.
Some Spanish hoteliers could refuse to take any Britons in favour of families from other countries.
Hoteliers in Mallorca estimate they have paid out more than 50million euros (£42.3million) in damages over the past 18 months.
In some areas, false food poisoning claims from Britons are said to have soared by as much as 700 per cent. There has been no corresponding increase among locals or tourists from other nations.
The Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca says it has pre-warned tour operators about the potential ban on Britons in advance of the 2018 season. ‘The only way to address this once and for all is by taking drastic measures,’ the group’s president Inmaculada Benito told a Spanish newspaper.
The federation has been complaining about the false food claims for 18 months and has held meetings with the British Embassy in Spain.
The British travel body ABTA and the Ministry of Justice have warned families against being dragged into the scam.
Claims management companies (CMCs) and lawyers appear to have moved on from PPI to rake in huge fees from holiday sickness claims and compensation.
The Claims Management Regulator said: ‘We are investigating the conduct of regulated CMCs and unauthorised entities in relation to a surge in holiday sickness claims.’
The regulator has met with ABTA and is working with tour operators, Spanish hoteliers and the police in Spain to crack down on the rogues.
ABTA said: ‘Data from ABTA members has shown a dramatic rise in the number of gastric illness claims made since 2013, while sickness levels reported in resort have remained stable.
‘ABTA has been calling for the Government to take further swift and decisive action to close legal loopholes that are being ruthlessly exploited by CMCs.’
The Foreign Office has warned that people who make false compensation claims could face legal proceedings in the UK or Spain.
Some hotels are considering asking guests to sign forms when they leave confirming they did not get food poisoning during their stay.
And some chemists in Benidorm are being asked not to sell tummy upset remedies to British holidaymakers without a prescription. This is because receipts from these purchases are needed to back up a claim when people get home.
‘Take drastic measures’