Thomas Cook donates payout for Corfu hotel deaths to charity

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/18/thomas-cook-holiday-deaths-compensation-charity

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Thomas Cook says it has donated to charity £1.5m of the compensation it received from a hotel in Corfu where two young holidaymakers died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Bobby and Christi Shepherd, aged six and seven, died at the Louis Corcyra Beach hotel in 2006 when they were overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler. On Sunday, Thomas Cook said it had received compensation “after it was clear the hotel was responsible”.

The payout was reported to be as much as £3.5m. The children’s mother, Sharon Wood, said the family was “incensed” and they had received only about a tenth of that. She told the Mail on Sunday: “It seems our children’s lives are worth only a fraction of Thomas Cook’s reputation.”

On Monday, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said the company had received £1.5m and had handed over the full amount to the UN children’s organisation Unicef.

“Thomas Cook has not in any way profited from our claim against the hotel owner,” he said. “In late 2012 we brought a claim against the hotelier for breaching their contract to provide safe accommodation to our customers and to comply with all applicable laws, which was decided in our favour.

“Today I have made arrangements for the full amount – £1.5m – to be donated in full to Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organisation. I believe this is the right thing to do and I apologise to the family for all they have gone through.”

Fankhauser confirmed that his firm received the £1.5m, mainly in respect of legal fees, as part of a £3m settlement with Louis Group, the hotel owners. The other £1.5m went to Thomas Cook’s insurers.

Thomas Cook said in October 2012 it had filed a claim against the Louis Group, the South African family-owned multinational that controls the Louis Corcyra hotel, to claw back costs and legal fees. The high court had awarded Thomas Cook an initial £1m in July 2013 and the rest of the money the following September.

Last Wednesday, an inquest jury reached a verdict of unlawful killing and said Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care. The foreman read out a series of conclusions, including that the hotel misled Thomas Cook about its gas supply and that the holiday firm’s health and safety audit of the complex was inadequate.

Wood said after the inquest that she would always hold Thomas Cook responsible for the deaths, arguing that it “could and should have identified that lethal boiler”.

The children’s father, Neil Shepherd, claimed the company had “hidden behind a wall of silence and they have refused to answer any questions for almost nine years”.