Quote: ‘When we landed in Alicante, we were told we would be picked up on arrival.
Nobody was there. At that point we were in an absolute panic. I had several means of contact, but they were all dead’
A family who headed for Alicante for a long awaited holiday – that spanned over a decade – arrived in Spain to find they had been the victim of a scam!
“I feel so stupid, it has affected my well-being and mental health. I feel so ridiculous.
“We have just been focusing on making the most of the trip for the children,” said father of four Neil Bray.
The family of six had booked a four-bed Villa for a summer holiday, only to discover the property didn’t exist.
The Alicante villa was marketed with a swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi – listed at €1,800 on a Spain holiday rentals group.
Neil, 42, contacted the advertiser and received a phone call to discuss dates and availability, transferring €180, via TransferGo as a deposit. He was told to pay the rest on arrival. They family spent £1,800 on plane tickets from Gatwick to Alicante.
Neil, his wife Hannah, 38, a support worker, and their four children, Nikolas, 17, Felicity, 15, Leyton, 9, and Bella, 8, were looking forward to their holidays on July 24.
Neil was told they would be picked up when they arrived in Alicante.
However, upon arrival nobody was there to collect them.
After finding alternative accommodation the family paid €2,800 for a new villa.
An additional expense was €125 on travel and €325 on a hire car.
Neil, a bank manager, from Bexhill, East Sussex, said: “The villa looked amazing, it had a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi and it was large.
“It was a wonderful four-bed property, with plenty of space. I spoke to the guy around a week before and I was saying how much we were looking forward to going on holiday.
“He was suggesting places to eat and drink and telling me how nice the weather was out there.
“When we landed in Alicante, we were told we would be picked up on arrival.
“But we got there, and nobody was there to pick us up. At that point, we were in an absolute panic. I had several means of contact with him, but they were all dead.”
Neil made the booking in March 2023 having seen an advertisement for a villa in Alicante on a Facebook page for Spanish holiday villas.
“We booked the Villa for 11 nights. My sister booked a further two weeks from August 4. I had a phone call with him, as he called me to ask if we were interested – saying they had a lot of interest,” he said.
“I sent him over €180 and as soon as we secured the villa, we booked the flights which cost £1,800 for six of us.
“We arrived at the airport expecting to be met, then when we tried to contact on all the different methods – Facebook, WhatsApp, email, call and text – everything was dead.
“We found out very quickly that the villa was for sale and that this person lifted the photos from a for sale page. We had transfers, car hire and the villa in this deal costing €1,800.
“We spent the first six hours stranded in the airport whilst we frantically found a villa that set us back €2,800, a taxi was €125 and car hire was €325.
“For us, it wasn’t that he scammed us for lots of money – the deposit was €180.
It was the stress and worry of arriving having nothing and spending an additional €1,500 to just be able to stay somewhere.
“This ate into a lot of our spending money, and we had to resort to a fairly low-key holiday.”
