Fraud crackdown gains positive results
The crackdown on holiday sickness claims fraud is moving in a positive direction, with the latest figures from the UK’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) showing that the number of Claims Management Companies (CMCs) operating in the travel sector fell by 37 per cent between August 2017 and January 2018.
According to Mark Hudson, Partner at law firm Horwich Farrelly, untrustworthy CMCs are not seeing holiday fraud as an attractive proposition after the strong response from the travel sector in defending against these claims. According to Hudson: “Such a fall is strong evidence that the robust response from the sector, working closely with firms like Horwich Farrelly, is making the business of fraudulent holiday sickness claims less attractive.”
The report from the MoJ aimed to evidence how the industry should best handle personal injury claims relating to a package holiday, finding that while gastric illnesses have been the main reason given for fraudulent claims, in future there could be unfounded increases in other types of package travel personal injury claims, meaning that further action may need to be taken.
Horwich Farrelly said that it used its zero-tolerance approach to fraud to successfully defend more than 2,700 holiday illness claims last year.
“The recent surge in travel claims resulted in many ‘new players’ entering this sector, and this is why Horwich Farrelly, in conjunction with FOIL and the travel industry, called for a bespoke pre-action protocol to address adverse behaviours and bring certainty with fixed costs,” stated Hudson.
“The travel industry has a key role to play in challenging fraudulent holiday illness claims and bringing them to justice.”