Ex-barrister sues firm over cancelled holiday

The move comes just over a year after a Shropshire man made legal history when he won a court battle with TUI, which owns Thomson Holidays, after he too was charged the full cost of a trip having had to cancel due to his wife's illness.

John Cartwright said he would now be using the precedent set by Bruce Crawcour, from Clive, near Shrewsbury, to support his claim against Thomas Cook.

TUI was ordered to refund the full £2,200 cost of Mr Crawcour's trip to Majorca following a hearing at Telford's small claims court in April last year. The company was also ordered to pay for Mr Crawcour's court costs.

Mr Cartwright, of Rutland, is now taking legal action against Thomas Cook. He and his wife, Carolyn, had been hoping to visit family in Hong Kong in October last year, but had to cancel three weeks after paying a £1,778 deposit.

His case is due to be held in Peterborough small claims court on September 30.

The 78-year-old, who has worked at courts in Mold and Birmingham, said he would be arguing the company's terms and conditions did not form part of the contract, and will also be using Mr Crawcour's argument that the terms are unfair and take the form of a penalty.

Mr Crawcour, a former assistant chief executive of Shropshire County Council, had been forced to cancel the holiday when his wife was admitted to hospital. He was told he would have to forfeit the full cost of the holiday. But after carrying out internet searches, he was able to establish the company had been able to resell his holiday without incurring any significant loss.

Mr Crawcour argued the cancellation clause was in breach of the Unfair Terms Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 and the guidance from the Office of Fair Trading.

He said an arbitrary 100 per cent charge for cancellations two weeks before a holiday was "unfair" as it could never be a genuine pre-estimate now that most travel business was done on the internet.

Mr Cartwright said by charging customers forced to cancel, and then re-selling the holidays, the travel companies were effectively profiting twice. He added the company had declined his offer to pay £350 in an out-of-court settlement.

Thomas Cook said it would not be able to comment ahead of the court case.