Bulgaria Ski discussion board

The big problem for police in Borovets this season is not thieves but troublesome UK tourists who make fraudulent claims about thefts in order to get large insurance payouts, an investigation by Sega found out. The UK citizens get compensation under many circumstances, even for there being no snow during their skiing holidays. However, this year they are not able to get money in this way and so they have been falsely claiming that video cameras, jewels or other expensive possessions have been stolen from them.
There have been five or six such cases since the beginning of the season, said Major Pavel Assenov of the Borovets police. In most of the cases the culprits have admitted that they have fabricated the thievery themselves. The perpetrators know very well that since they are not Bulgarians no one is going to hold them responsible under the law for misleading the authorities, police said.

The latest from the Sofia Independent...

Nice to know what british people do in there spare time

Sune

To All
Due to this increasing problem of fraudulent claims unfortunately it has now made it very difficult for genuine people, who like ourselves found it necessary to call in the Police when our chalet was broken into & all mine & my daughters clothes were stolen. Trying to sort everything out with them when you don't speak a word of Bulgarian was bad enough, but when you are competing with this growing trend you were made to feet as if they were trying to blame us for the incident. Even now nearly two months later we are still trying to sort our claim out with the insurance company
meanwhile my daughter lost her entire wardrobe of Clothes that she had for a Christmas Present clothes especially for our first trip away ever! and at 5 years of age this has left her distressed as when she always talks of the holiday all she says is that the bad man came & took her clothes.The only thing we now have going for us is that the Police have caught & dealt with the person concerned & As for the insurance company, as we were not claiming for things like camcorders etc. which most claimants do they are thinking about paying out but still only half of the amount that the clothes were worth seeing they were brand new & I still have the receipts.

So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLAESE ALL when making false claims think of the problems you are causing the genuine few & the cost it will add to all insurance policies in the Future & also the impression it is giving of us Brits abroad to the authorities in other countries, how would we like it if our Police time was taking up with foreigners call them out on false pretences instead of catching the criminals.

Getting down off high horse now
Trace

The French Police are now putting a stop to this by checking people leaving the resorts.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1390675,00.html

FRENCH police have launched a crackdown on a “plague” of skiers — allegedly led by the British — who fraudulently declare their equipment stolen in order to claim insurance payouts.
They say that British and other tourists line up outside police stations on the final day of their holidays to declare the theft of their skis. Hundreds of these claims are false and, moreover, the British are the biggest offenders, partly because British insurance companies pay out sums so readily.

As part of the crackdown, which began as the first Alpine ski resorts opened at the weekend, officers will be carrying out spot checks on trains, coaches and cars leaving Alpine ski resorts. People caught with equipment that they have declared as stolen will face prosecution. “Every year, between 3,000 and 4,000 skis are declared stolen in this county alone and we estimate that at the very least 10 to 15 per cent of the claims are fraudulent,” Colonel Thierry Cailloz, head of the gendarmerie in the Savoie region, said.