18 August 2003

Reps rights in question
A total of five British holiday reps have been arrested in the Greek island resort of Faliraki, as authorities take action over rowdy British holidaymakers. The five are believed to have been arrested for allegedly conducting "guided, illegal trade" pub crawls around the resort's pubs and clubs. Police on the island claim the pub tours can lead to violence and sexual excess.

The crackdown follows warnings from the authorities on Rhodes about the antics of British tourists and holiday reps. The Mayor of Faliraki is reported to have ordered the crackdown on the bar tours following the death of Irish teenager Paddy Doran in a bar room brawl in the town last week.

Binge-drinking accusations
First Choice Holidays said one of its reps, Thomas Battista, 31, who works for the operator's 2wentys Holidays brand, was questioned by police about the activities of tourists in his care. A spokeswoman for First Choice said they believed Mr Battista, who was in charge of a group of reps in Faliraki, had been accused of encouraging binge-drinking at the resort but has since been released without charge.

A 33-year-old woman, Sarah-Louise Sharkey, from Penrith in Cumbria, was also arrested while supervising a bar crawl. Ms Sharkey, who works for Olympic Holidays, has lived in Greece for 12 years. She was arrested on Thursday night while in the resort with a group of around 40 holidaymakers and other travel reps. She was taken into custody and released on bail on Friday morning. According to her father she has been provided with legal representation by her employers.

'Nothing wrong'
Olympic Holidays spokesman Kratimos Pyliotis said: "She has all our support and has done absolutely nothing wrong. She was simply with a group of holidaymakers taking part in safe and organised activities that have been going on for years. We have yet to establish exactly what the nature of the alleged offence is. It is based on some 30-year old bylaw that our lawyers are looking into and if it hadn't been for the Doran incident last week none of this would have ever been an issue."

The tour operator Club 18-30 said three of its staff were being "detained illegally in breach of their human rights" after they were held by local police on Sunday night. A spokesman for the company named the arrested reps as 24-year-old Derek Celis, Emily Dean, aged 20, who are both from London and Claire Hullock, aged 20, from Leeds. All five reps will appear before a local court in the resort on Monday. The Greek authorities claim the bar tours are illegal as businesses allegedly offer holiday reps commission for encouraging holidaymakers to enter the bars and buy drinks.

[Source: bbc.co.uk]

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