A Nottingham dad has told how he nearly took his own life and now faces debts of £25,000 after Jet2 accused him of lying about falling ill while on holiday. Karl Hughes has endured years of legal fighting with the holiday firm.
The saga began when Karl and Laura took their three children and two of their grandparents for a ten-day, £6,000 Christmas break in 2016. But the festive holiday soon took a turn for the worse when the mum and dad began feeling ill having only eaten at the hotel, they claim. The application also made the threat of being locked up clear, quoting a 2011 case in which a judge said: "Those who make such false claims, if caught, should expect to go to prison." Three costly hearings followed, including one in 2018 when a judge ruled that his court had no jurisdiction over the case - which was later overturned on appeal.
For Karl, this confirmed his long held suspicion that Jet2 saw the case in part as a way to warn away other holidaymakers from making compensation requests. "My personal view is that Jet2 wanted to make an example of us and other people to stop any compensation claims happening, to scare them from making compensation claims," he said.
"We try and hide it from the kids but they've been affected. I had to borrow money from my dad to get solicitors and had to get an agreement to pay back £500 a month. She ruled that the travel firm had failed to prove the relevant burden of proof that the family were not unwell and that their Facebook posts from the holiday did not disprove their illness. Judge Coe also found the family had complained about food being cold and insects landing on it at the time, and that their initial claims of being "acutely unwell" for nine days were merely an exaggeration rather than a lie.
I dropped a slice of pizza once and am not able to watch a Dominoes ad without crying.....