Liam Royle has been ordered to repay Jet2holidays more than £6,000 in costs after his compensation claim for gastric illness was found to be completely fraudulent.
The 23-year-old’s claim was thrown out by a judge after Jet2holidays challenged his account, which was debunked by evidence provided by his ex-girlfriend.
This included a video showing Royle, of Eccles, Manchester, dancing beside a pool to Psy’s K-Pop smash hit.
Royle and his ex-partner enjoyed a week-long Jet2holidays break at the Papantonia Hotel Apartments in Cyprus in August 2015.
He later made a bid for compensation, claiming for five days he had suffered stomach cramps, diarrhoea and vomiting as a result of food poisoning.
In his claim, Royle said he suffered personal injury and loss of enjoyment through missing meals, excursions, swimming time and other activities.
However, Royle’s now ex-partner, who holidayed with him, was able to provide a dossier of evidence showing his claim to be fraudulent.
Her evidence not only showed Royle dancing by the pool on one of the days he was allegedly ill, he was also pictured in the pool and out enjoying the evening entertainment.
She was also able to demonstrate Royle took a taxi to Asia Napa to get a McDonalds, adding he did not skip meals drank beer and cocktails and described the holiday as “fabulous”.
District Judge Sunil Iyer, sitting at Manchester’s Civil Justice Centre this week, said he could not avoid finding Royle’s claim “fundamental dishonest”.
“A statement of truth was signed by Mr Royle knowing it contained fundamental lies, and he gave incorrect information to his medical expert, and as a result a claim was issued,” said the judge.
Jet2: 'We will robustly defend false claims'
Steve Heapy, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive, said: “We have worked very hard to tackle the problem of false sickness claims and to protect holidaymakers against the risks of getting involved in such dishonest activity, but unfortunately there is a minority who think that they can get away with it.
“This judgment shows that there are very real consequences to making false sickness claims, and Mr Royle must now pay the price. We would like to thank Mr Royle’s ex-girlfriend for her honesty, and although this is an unusual case, anyone making a fake sickness claim should be fully aware that we will robustly investigate and defend any claims that are dishonest or illegitimate.”
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice announced an extension to its schedule of fixed recoverable costs to cover holiday sickness claims brought under the Package Travel Regulations, making any associated defence costs more predictable in a bid to deter bogus claims.
Further measures have been introduced to curtail cold calling without consent. The Financial Conduct Authority has pledged to further regulate misleading practices and dishonest activity by claims management firms when it takes over regulation for them next April.
