A man said he was left feeling suicidal and is now £25,000 in debt after Jet2 accused him of lying about falling ill on a family holiday.
Karl Hughes was embroiled in a legal battle with the holiday operator over an alleged false claim after he and his wife Laura sought compensation having allegedly suffered from food poisoning on a 2016 Lanzarote break. A judge found the couple guilty after Jet2 took the case to a civil court.
They faced up to two years in prison and a huge fine, the Mirror reports. Despite successfully defending themselves in the contempt of court legal fight, Karl has been emotionally and financially battered by what he calls a legal trauma that lasted five years and has left him tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.
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Karl, a karate instructor, told the Mirror: "It has been five-and-a-half years of hell. My wife has been having mental health help. I've suffered depression and been suicidal. Being faced with prison is awful. Awful. They have spent a lot of money trying to put two people with kids in prison. We hate them. I would never go with them again. When a Jet2 advert comes on tv or the radio, I have a panic attack. I feel anxious and my heart races."
The saga began when Karl and Laura took their three kids and two of their grandparents for a ten-day, £6,000, Christmas break in 2016. The couple claims the holiday quickly took a turn for the worse when they began feeling ill having only eaten at the hotel.
A bad bout of gastroenteritis laid them out for the week, causing them to spend much of the trip in bed and being sick, Karl alleged. After the family had returned to their Nottingham home following the "queasy" break, they say they received a call from a legal firm asking if they'd like to make a compensation claim against Jet2.
A bundle of witness statements chronicling the claimed period of sickness, as well as online reviews of the hotel making claims about its health and safety procedures, were sent off to Jet2's lawyers.
Jet2 rejected the family's complaints on the basis that Karl had posted photos of them seemingly enjoying themselves on Facebook during the holiday. About a year later Karl and Laura were contacted by a legal aide for Jet2 accusing them of making false claims and bringing civil proceedings for contempt of court.
In 2018, judges ruled they had to pay Jet2's legal fees for the appeal and previous hearing. Jet2 won a subsequent appeal, with Lord Justice Hamblen ruling that witness statements the couple had stated were true, made about the holiday in response to Jet2's contempt application could be considered in contempt proceedings.
The appeal victory meant that Jet2 was legally able to accuse the couple in the civil courts of contempt of court, which could have seen them jailed for two years. At the time Stephen Heapy, the CEO of Jet2, made it clear how big an impact this case could have on the future of legal claims from some Brits who fall ill abroad.
Afterwards, Jet2's lawyers presented the couple with a bill of close to £30,000, for some of the firms' legal costs, to be paid on Christmas Eve. Karl said: "As you can imagine this devastated us. We had no idea what to do and went into Christmas feeling like our whole world had fallen apart."
Over the years the case and the prospect of being sent to prison while having three teenage children has hung over them both like a dark cloud.
At the beginning of March 2022 the case, which had been pushed back twice during the coronavirus lockdowns, was finally heard at Derby District Registry. Her Honour Judge Coe QC dismissed the claims and ordered Jet2 to pay some of the Hughes' legal costs for the final hearing.
She ruled the travel firm had failed to prove the relevant burden of proof that the family was 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.
Despite the findings, and the fact some of the costs were set aside, the couple is still required to pay some of Jet2's legal costs for the appeal hearing, meaning they remain swamped with more than £25,0000 of debt.
While the application against them was dismissed, Karl fears that their case serves as a precedent for Jet2 and other holiday firms to go after some other holidaymakers and "bury them in litigation and legal fees if they suspect even a small part of their statement to be untrue".
He said: "We stood firm in our belief that we were telling the truth and even though we were terrified of what was happening to us we managed to do enough online research to find small glimmers of hope so that we could continue to push through and defend ourselves. My fear is that not everyone out there will be as resilient and may fold under financial and legal pressure."
A Jet2holidays spokesperson said: “Between 2015 and 2018 the travel industry saw an enormous increase in the number of fake sickness claims with claims spiking by up to 500%. Jet2holidays led the way to tackle this issue, robustly investigating and defending claims where necessary.
“In 2018 Jet2holidays was given permission by the courts to bring committal proceedings against Mr & Mrs Hughes. Although we are disappointed with this decision, we have no plans to challenge it and we are in discussion with the Hughes’ representatives regarding costs.”
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