Spanish hotels launch new campaign to prosecute Brits who fake food poisoning on all-inclusive breaks
New rules will also require tourists submittting sickness claims to provide medical evidence
BRITISH holidaymakers are being warned that they could face prosecution if they try to submit a fake food poisoning claim against a Spanish hotel this summer.
Hoteliers are fed up with the dodgy lawsuits, which they say cost the industry more than £52 million last year.
According to , claims in Mallorca alone rose by more than 700 per cent in 2016.
But the Spanish hotel owners association (CEHAT) has had enough and are taking matters into their own hands, saying they have seen little action by tour operators.
The organisation is drawing up a series of new guidelines on how to deal with claims – 90 per cent of which they believe are fake.
New rules would require anyone submitting a food poisoning claim to also provide medical evidence, which until now has not been necessary.
The assocation is also encouraging hotels to closely monitor when and what guests are eating, so that they can prove the claimant was in the dining room when they said they were ill.
Hotels will take more proactive measures to prosecute anyone involved in a fraudulent claim too, including the small-claims management companies who target tourists both in the resorts and once they have returned home.
A new campaign throughout Spain's popular holiday resorts will warn holidaymakers of the risks of making a false insurance claim in the country, which can carry a lengthy prison sentence.
Ramón Estalella, the secretary general of CEHAT, told The Guardian that it is clear that the high number of claims being submitted are fake because a worldwide health alert would have been declared if they had been real.
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He said: “The situation is really worrying because of the volume of claims that we know have been made and because of those we expect to be made this summer.
“We can't wait for the kind of long-term measures being proposed by tour operators."
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is also asking holidaymakers to tell hotel staff about any touts who are spotted trying to convince people to make claims.
If the contact is made once they have returned to the UK, they should report the matter to the police.
Last month, it had been suggested that Brits could be banned from all-inclusive hotels in Mallorca because of the multi-million pound cost of false food poisoning claims.
Hoteliers are having to pay out as much as £5,000 a time for bogus cases.