Thomas Cook payout to family who fell ill at Egypt hotel

The hotel is on the Red Sea coast

A family who fell ill while staying at an Egyptian hotel where a British couple later died have successfully sued Thomas Cook.

The family-of-four, from south Wales, had vomiting and diarrhoea while on holiday in Hurghada in April 2016.

Their solicitors found food hygiene failings at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel.

Thomas Cook, who were ordered to pay £26,000 in compensation and costs, said the safety of guests was its priority.

John Cooper and his wife Susan, from Lancashire, in the north of England, died while staying at the same hotel earlier this month.

The cause of their deaths is being investigated and the Egyptian government has ordered a thorough investigation into hygiene standards at the resort.

But in July this year, at Newport County Court, the holiday firm was instructed to pay compensation to the Valu family, who fell ill in 2016 while celebrating one of their daughters birthdays in the Red Sea all-inclusive resort.

The family accused Thomas Cook of failing to ensure food and drink at the hotel was "safe for human consumption" and permitted food to be "re-served or re-used on more than one occasion".

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Law firm JMW Solicitors, who represented the family, said the mother and father and two girls, then aged five and six, developed gastric illness within a day of each other during the stay.

Joanne Brine, partner at JMW Solicitors, said they suffered from symptoms for months after the trip.

During the case, which went to trial after Thomas Cook denied liability, Ms Brine said food safety logs, for recording temperature checks for food storage, had not been kept properly.

A handwriting expert for the firm found signatures on food and cleaning logs had been from one person rather than the four different people who had signed.

John and Susan Cooper, from Burnley, Lancashire, died on Tuesday 21 August

She told BBC Wales the family complained to Thomas Cook when they got home from their holiday.

But after failing to "get anywhere" they took the company to court, where they were awarded £26,000 - about £8,000 of which was for damages and the rest went towards their legal costs for the trial.

"They'd been on an all-inclusive holiday, so they'd only eaten and drunk things that had come from the hotel restaurant, and they'd noticed concerns about the standards in the restaurant, about the temperature of the food and the cleanliness," she said.

"But it is very difficult when you are on an all-inclusive, and they had made a complaint in the resort to highlight awareness."

Ms Brine said it was now important for the family to understand if Thomas Cook acted on the concerns, highlighted years before Mr and Mrs Cooper died on August 21.

'Hotel audited in July'

Thomas Cook said the safety and wellbeing of customers was always its first priority and it would never send customers to a hotel it did not think was safe.

"We audit all 3,000 of our core hotels every year and so far this calendar year we have removed 47 hotels for health and safety reasons and a further 150 which did not meet our strict quality criteria," a spokesman said.

"As well as the audits our quality teams regularly inspect our properties and provide support, guidance and training to help hotels improve. We last audited Steigenberger Aqua Magic in July 2018."