Kidnap refund row
John was snatched from his room and beaten with an iron bar. But hotel still charged him £44
A PENSIONER who was kidnapped and beaten by thugs after he checked in to a hotel has not had a refund for his room.
The hotel chain said it was “co-operating with police”, but have failed to pay back the £44 charge.
AN ailing pensioner has been snubbed by a multinational hotel chain after asking for a £44 refund — because he was kidnapped by a gang of thugs before he got a chance to use their room.
Widower John Owens, who has a heart condition, had only just checked in to an Ibis hotel close to Brussels Airport when he answered a knock at the door.
He was confronted by three men who dragged him down the service stairs and away from the hotel, before demanding his car keys.
We told in April how the grandadof-four was beaten savagely with an iron bar before being bundled into a van and driven around the city while the kidnappers repeatedly asked for his car keys.
But the 75-year-old, of Kendal, Cumbria, was only in Belgium because he had taken ill on a flight home from Cyprus and the pilot had diverted to Brussels so John could get emergency medical treatment. Realising their mission was useless, the gang threw John — battered and disoriented — out of the van.
He was found in the street by local police and rushed to hospital.
A British Embassy official visited John in hospital as police launched a full probe into his ordeal.
Now back home, the former coach inspector — who has severe nerve damage as a result of the beating — is furious that Ibis have ignored his requests for a refund.
He told The Sunday Post: “I’ve never known anything so shabby. It is very poor.
“I wrote to the managing director of Ibis asking the firm to refund the cost of the room I never got to use.
“In it I mentioned the trouble I had in the hotel and that, under the circumstances, since I was only in the room for a few minutes, I thought it was not unreasonable to ask for a refund.”
“That was over two months ago. I still haven’t had a reply.
“Just in case my letter had been mislaid, I wrote to Ibis again, this time recorded delivery so I could check the letter reached them.
“The Post Office say they got the letter but I’ve still not had a reply.”
Meanwhile John — whose wife Nora died in November 2011 — claims his injuries have robbed him of his independence and made his life a misery.
He has been left with crippling back pain and the nerve damage is costing him the use of his hands.
He said: “My fingers are folding in and I can’t straighten them.
“The hospital has given me Velcro shoes which I can push down with my knuckles but I cannot cook or cut things so I am having to eat ready meals. It has made things very awkward.”
An Ibis spokesman said: “We have been co-operating with the police.
“The security of our guests is a priority and to that end our hotels operate robust security systems including 24 hour CCTV footage.
“We have made available to the police the CCTV footage from the hotel on the evening in question.”