ISTHERE any dirty trick to which holidaymakers will not stoop in an attempt to rip off their travel insurers?
Well, not if this latest list of failed frauds attempted against Home and Overseas is anything to go by.
A Home and Overseas insider recounted to Backchat the woeful tale of a woman who lost 32 pairs of Levi jeans at a total cost of over £1,500 over a three-year period.
She claimed they were lost in transit in 14 different suitcases by a variety of different airlines, and tried to fool insurers by using different identities and receipts discarded by customers from the jeans store in which she worked.
The collection of receipts retrieved by police suggested that in one 10-day period, her weight had ballooned from a size 8 to a size 18.
Then there was the case of the guy who went to Spain on holiday and claimed to have been attacked by a dog. As he was running to escape, all his money fell out of his trousers, and before he could bend down to pick it up the dog had eaten all his cash.
Another chancer was the Australian surfer who regularly travelled between the northern and southern hemispheres to follow the summer season.
He claimed for damage to or loss in transit of surf boards no less than seven times.
He used surf shop contacts to get hold of receipts for the new boards, which were worth up to £1,000 each. But he was finally caught out when an ex-girlfriend decided to shop him.
Then there is that old chestnut, the fake Rolex. A Birmingham man made a £2,750 claim for a Rolex watch, but close examination of his photographs revealed that the watch had cost approximately £2.99 and was bought in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Home and Overseas has compiled a list of the top 10 items likely to attract exaggerated claims.
These are, from the top, cameras, jewellery, designer clothes, sunglasses, walkman/CD players, suitcases, watches, contents of lost baggage, purchases made to replace essential items and telephone calls.