A group of British tourists stroll through Benidorm. LARS TER MEULEN

The establishments of the Costa Blanca affected by the false claims of tourists will ask jail for the defraudadores

Hosbec joins UDEF to monitor and detain scam artists

The fraud of the false claims that the British tourists present against the Spanish hotels so that their vacations are free for them is acquiring such a dimension that the Alicante hotel companies are going to be added to the criminal processes that can be opened as a result of these practices and go To demand prison for both the clients and those in charge of the companies that are dedicated to advise these tourists. And is that the hotel plant of the Costa Blanca, especially the area of ​​the Marinas, is one of the most affected in Spain by these scams, with half of its clientele coming from the United Kingdom. Hence, the companies associated with the employers Hosbec have put the batteries to stop this spiral of scams.

Requests for jail sentences for fraudsters and claim farms (companies specializing in lodging false claims against hotels and charging large commissions for it) are part of the set of deterrent measures that hotels and tour operators have promoted with the legal support of the Government Of the United Kingdom, which, given the massive fraud it has observed, has oiled all its legislative machinery to try to curb the flood of thieves by the negative consequences (price increases of the packages, bad image of the country and its citizens, millionaire losses for Hotels, etc.) of this type of activity.

The picaresque that is used, especially in high season, is as simple as it is effective: the tourist spends the whole train at the hotel, then pretends to be sick, and then makes a claim against the hotel to return the money paid For his vacations as a result of having contracted that illness or indisposition due to the service of the establishment. To this return of the money is added the corresponding compensation, so that the costs soar. The current British legislative framework is an incentive for this kind of scams. Not for nothing, tourists from the United Kingdom can make claims outside their country until three years after leaving the region where they spent their vacation. The planned legal changes are directed towards limiting the legal costs of these claim procedures (they are now very high and therefore interested in these companies specialized in processing claims); The measures are also aimed at reducing the period in which that claim can be dealt with, and to tighten sentences. British Prime Minister Theresa May herself said last Monday in reference to this issue that «harsh prison sentences are already in force for anyone found guilty of making a fraudulent claim», but the British Government’s intention is «to go beyond».

The movements

And while in the United Kingdom the pressure of Spanish hoteliers, including Hosco associates and tour operators such as Thomas Cook, TUI, Jet2holidays and Monarch, has been set in the tourist industry in Spain, the tourism companies have activated their particular battery of Measures to puncture this defrauding bubble. One of these actions is to coordinate with the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit of the National Police (UDEF) to control, monitor and, where appropriate, detain those who attempt to make false claims this summer. Members of Hosbec and the aforementioned police unit held a meeting last Friday in Benidorm to lay the groundwork for this type of action. The meeting took place at the request of the UDEF, very interested in stopping this escalation of fraud. The hotel managers will maintain direct contact with the Police so that as soon as they suspect that a false claim attempt is made, the tourist and the commercial agent (agent of the company that encourages the filing of the complaint) To judicial disposition.

The hotels will be very vigilant this summer to cut off these scams, which are often set in the premises of the establishments, where representatives of claim farms come to convince tourists to submit claims against hotels by Having suffered, for example, an intoxication with the hotel’s food, with the bail of economic compensation and the possibility that the holiday will get total free. Likewise, Hosbec also plans to meet with the head of the prosecution in Benidorm to address this issue.