They say a picture paints a thousand words; video naturally tells a lot more. In cases of holiday illness fraud, it’s these forms of documentary evidence that usually save the day… and now we bring you another one of those attempts to gain undeserved compensation.
Police officer Katie Miles, of the Nottinghamshire force, claimed falling ill due to food poisoning at the Royal Holiday resort in Sharm el Sheik in 2015. The claimant was requested to disclose her holiday photographs and videos as part of litigation, and the story they told was far from Miles’ account, which pointed to her supposed hotel room confinement and repeated trips to the toilet.
The materials included photos of the police officer on a desert quad-biking excursion and a boat tour, as well as footage of her on a camel ride.
Miles also claimed that the illness lasted for two to three months. During the trial, it was heard that she did not visit a doctor at the time.
The “exaggerated” claim against Thomas Cook, which was represented by BLM, has been found fundamentally dishonest at Nottingham County Court. Miles was ordered to pay the tour operator’s legal costs of £2,776.
“The package holiday market has long been targeted by dishonest claims and BLM has worked closely with the travel industry to curb this activity,” said BLM partner Arion Jones. “However, concerns remain that a large proportion of claimants who may have been genuinely ill have exaggerated their claims or distorted their history of activities on holiday either to increase their potential compensation or to support their case on causation.
“This is on the same level as a wholly fake / bogus claim in terms of fraud. This judgment is a great example of the approach the courts are taking for claimants embellishing their symptoms and will be of assistance when dealing with future claims that have been exaggerated dishonestly.”
