Majorca hotels hire detectives to end bogus food poisoning claims

MAJORCA has hit back at British holidaymakers who make fake food poisoning claims by hiring private detectives to catch them.

Police on the holiday island have handed a file of alleged false holiday sickness claims to a judge to investigate after hotels complained. The inquiry was launched by lawyers for the Mac Hotels group. It is believed to be the first of its kind brought about by a hotel group complaint.

A British man was arrested in June in Majorca and a second has been placed under formal investigation on suspicion of encouraging tourists to make fake food poisoning claims after allegedly targeting them outside hotels in the north east of the island.

A specialist police fraud squad known as UDEF presented a report to the Palma court after receiving a dossier from the law firm hired by Mac Hotels that included documentation put together by private detectives.

The dossier is understood to have included photos and taped conversations gathered partly from an exhaustive social media search. Detectives handed their own file into the investigating court in June after a six-month inquiry based on the hotel group complaint.

The move represents a significant step up in the fight against allegedly fake food claims, which have sparked a backlash from Spanish hoteliers.

Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Frankhauser warned this week that bogus food poisoning claims risk making British holidaymakers the laughing stock of Europe.

He added: “We need to work together to clamp down on any activity that we believe fraudulent and seek changes to the law to close the holiday sickness claims loophole.”