Thomas Cook donates Corfu deaths compensation to Unicef
Update: Thomas Cook has confirmed it will donate the compensation it received over two children's deaths in Corfu in 2006 to children's charity Unicef, following City A.M.'s earlier report.
The travel operator is donating the £1.5m it received from the Louis Group as compensation from the hotel where the two children died from carbon monoxide poisoning, in full. The payments were made in 2013 and 2014, following a case brought by Thomas Cook against Louis Group in October 2012.
Thomas Cook came under fire over the weekend after the parents of Christianne and Robert Shepherd, who were on holiday with their father and his partner when they died, claimed they had not received an apology from Thomas Cook until Sunday, when the compensation was made public.
Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood were also reported as saying they had received a fraction of the amount of compensation Thomas Cook received.
The company claimed compensation for the time its employees spent dealing with the incident, as well as loss of profit on bookings cancelled in its aftermath.
In a statement group chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: “Thomas Cook has not in any way profited from our claim against the hotel owner. 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.”