When Adrian Radford went to the Maldives for his 5th anniversary with his partner he expected it to be the holiday of a lifetime in beautiful surroundings. Unfortunately, his trip was marred by a catalogue of errors culminating in the placing of a stone in his food, which he believes to be motivated by homophobia.

Mr Radford contacted us at www.accidents-abroad.com when previous attempts at resolving the matter directly with his tour operator Best at Travel failed. Mr Radford booked his holiday at the resort with his partner to ensure their 5th anniversary was one to remember. It was – but for all the wrong reasons.

Upon arrival their sea plane transfer was delayed for five hours. Mr Radford, his partner and 12 other passengers were left stranded in the airport without any food. When they finally managed to leave the airport they were told they would receive adequate compensation. They did not.

Having settled in to the hotel and putting their transfer experience behind them Mr Radford and his partner decided to visit Hamza Island. The excursion was organised by the hotel. A four course meal was provided of prawns, fish, salmon and duck. The meal was also inedible owing to all the food being left out in 45 degree heat for 5 hours and no cool box being used by the hotel. Fearing food poisoning they, correctly, decided to not eat their lunch.

Things were set to get worse though. Having booked to stay half board their lunch was provided by the hotel. Ordering cold Vietnamese rolls from the Sunset Bar in the hotel Mr Radford expected prawn, noodles and chicken. He did not expect a stone that measured 1cm by 1cm to be inside the roll and chip his tooth. But that is what he was served. Fortunately, he did not swallow the stone but he did chip and crack his front tooth. Mr Radford then telephoned his GP who confirmed that if he had swallowed the stone it could have easily resulted in a blocked windpipe and death or become lodged in his intestinal tract.

Needless to say Mr Radford’s holiday was ruined and he feared that he and his partner had been targeted personally by the chef as they are homosexual. They were left with no option but to eat chocolate and snacks from their mini bar because the resort’s track record with food was nothing short of disgusting. The spring rolls are made by hand. It is inconceivable that a chef would have accidentally placed a stone in the roll. The resort did admit to Mr Radford that the placing of the stone must have been deliberate.

Shockingly, the resort did not even apologise for Mr Radford’s experience nor offer any extras to ensure that the rest of their stay was as pleasant as possible.

Despite repeated complaints to the resort manager both when he was in the Maldives and from the UK Mr Radford has still not received a satisfactory response. We have now intervened on Mr Radford’s behalf and we hope to bring this matter to a swift and agreeable conclusion for our client.

If you have had a similar experience then call us for free expert advice or make a claim online to find out if you can get compensation for a ruined holiday on a no win no fee basis.