A family has been informed that they cannot get back the £800 a woman put towards a Greek holiday with the travel company Jet2 after her sudden death aged 38 - unless they spend £500 to get it.
Sharlene Bockross tragically died after suffering a heart attack, leaving behind her teenage son Tyler.
Sharlene's bank accounts and pension have already been passed on to her family, but Jet2 have said that it cannot refund the £800 cost of a summer trip to Kos, Hull Live reports.
Jet2 have said that in order to get the money back, the family will have to hire an executor and go through probate, which a solicitor says will cost them £500.
Sharlene's devastated mum, Karen Gaze, said: "She died suddenly and unexpectedly on December 28 from a cardiac arrest. Her brother, Paul, found her and tried to resuscitate her. We are all devastated.
"We later learned she had a heart condition she wasn't aware of. She was supposed to be taking Tyler on holiday on June 25 to celebrate Tyler's 16th birthday.
"Sharlene was always a forward-thinker and she would pay a bit towards the holiday every month so that she could pay for it all in advance. She had paid about £815 of the £1,200 for the two of them."
She added: "Jet2 are very sympathetic on the phone and very nice about it, but they are telling me I must have an executor for Sharelene's estate, which my solicitor says is just completely unnecessary and will cost about £500.
"The money is for Tyler and we want him to have it but all he's going to get is £300 once we've paid to appoint the executor. It's so annoying because we've set up an account for the money Sharlene did have to go into and the banks have let us get the money.
"But this money is for Sharlene's poor son and Jet2 are digging their heels in. I've sent the death certificate and even her birth certificate to prove that I'm her mum.
"But they'll only send the money to the executor of her estate. It's been hard for Tyler - he's only 15 and he's got his GCSEs coming up.
"He's being very strong but it's been hard, emotionally, for us all. I just don't want to be arguing anymore."
She said being dishonest would have achieved a fairer outcome: "Ironically, I could have just phoned pretending to be Sharlene and asked to cancel and they would have given me a full refund. But I decided to be honest instead."
Jet2 confirmed they were not going to make exceptions to the rules for Karen. They said in a statement: “We would like to extend our sincere condolences to Ms Gaze and her family at this difficult time.
"As the account used to make the original booking has been closed, we cannot refund that account. As such, we have requested for Ms Gaze to provide documentation showing her to be the named executor of her daughter’s estate so that we can refund her directly.
"As we have not received this proof of authority, we are unfortunately unable to do this. We sincerely hope to be able to complete the refund once this proof of authority is confirmed, and we have been in touch with Ms Gaze to explain this.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
