Kirstie Willetts, the young holidaymaker at the centre of a truly amazing lapse of security, both here in Turkey and in the UK, who was left stranded here after her passport was given to another holidaymaker, has finally got her new passport, enabling her to fly home.
You may remember, Kirstie, 20, from Sheffield, has been staying on an enforced holiday after bungling staff at the hotel she was staying at, mistakenly gave her passport to Hazel Ellaby, a 29 year old mum who also happened to be flying back to Manchester, but 2 weeks before Kirstie was due to travel. Aside from the obvious differences in age and appearance, the most amazing thing about this story, when you bear in mind how strict the security in the UK is at present, is that Hazel was allowed to obtain her boarding pass, check through immigration control, board the flight, return through UK Passport and immigration control and travel to her home, without so much as a raised eyebrow from the many “security” check points.
Thankfully now, for Kirstie, and her friend Rebecca Jones, also 20 from Sheffield, they are able to return home, after Kirstie obtained her new Passport from the British Consulate in Bodrum.
Kirstie, who works as a care assistant in Sheffield, is both stressed and angry as a result of her ordeal.
Whilst the Hotel at the centre of the mix-up has given Kirstie free accommodation and arranged, and paid for all travelling and costs to obtain her new passport, the whole saga has left Kirstie and her friend Rebecca, seriously out of pocket. Kirstie said;”My father had to send me £1000 this week to enable me to eat and to pay for my return flight back to the UK on Monday. My phone bill has been over £600 just for the first 4 weeks; goodness knows how much the total phone bill will be, but the whole fiasco is probably going to cost me around £3000.
Kirstie flies back into Manchester on Monday morning with Onur Air, after having to stay in Altinkum for 7 weeks, she says that although she won’t hesitate to come back to Altinkum, as she has made some great friends during her stay here, but because of the lack of vigilance by so many different agencies, she says “I will never let my Passport out of my sight again”.
