INSURANCE SMALL PRINT DEFEATS DIVER'S FAMILY AS MEDICAL BILLS MOUNT IN EGYPT

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 1st Aug 2005

A Solihull pensioner has been warned he could have his passport confiscated and be thrown into an Egyptian jail following his insurance company's refusal to pay out on medical bills.

Tony Allen was on a diving holiday when he contracted decompression sickness, commonly known as the bends.

Lloyds TSB Insurance has refused to pay out the insurance premium as he languishes in Marsa Alam, Egypt, clocking up £2,000 a day in medical bills for treatment in a recompression chamber.

His recovery may have been compromised by Lloyds' medical sub-contractors who revealed to him that they were refusing to pay the insurance after having been expressly asked not to do so by the family on the advice of Mr Allen's doctors.

Mr Allen's MP, Lorely Burt, has been supporting the family in England throughout their ordeal.

'Yesterday the underwriters assured me they would give sympathetic consideration to Mr Allen's case,' said Mrs Burt, 'but they have decided they will not pay up on medical bills which may reach as much as £40,000.'

'The medical report showed that dehydration had been a major factor in Mr Allen's decompression sickness. I understand this could have occurred when diving at any level. I am deeply disappointed they have decided to stick to the wording of the small print to justify not helping this family' she added.

Mr Allen negated the terms of his insurance policy by diving lower than the specified 30 metres in the small print. 'I understand Mr Allen is a very experienced diver: his personal computer showed he conducted a textbook dive with his instructor, stopping as he came to the surface for the specified periods to avoid decompression sickness.

'The dive manifest showed that nearly half the other divers in the group dived at least as deep as Mr Allen with no ill effects,' said Mrs Burt. 'This would indicate that dehydration, not depth was a significant factor in his sickness.'

'This should serve as a lesson to anyone contemplating any potentially hazardous sporting activity: check the small print of your policy before you do anything' she added.

The family are now contemplating their next move.