A feisty gran who chased two burglars from her hotel room after they grabbed £12,000 of jewels from her bedside table has won thousands in damages for her ordeal.
Widowed Primrose Grainger, 77, lost a lifetime’s collection of gems and other treasures given to her by husband who had died just three months before.
She was still in mourning when two thieves crept into her room at the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone, Kent, in July 2013.
Mrs Grainger said she ‘loved’ her jewels, which reminded her of places she and her husband had visited in happier times.
The collection – including a £5,000 ‘turban-style’ gold band and a unique £3,000 ring modelled on a Faberge original – ‘never left her sight’.
Primrose Grainger, pictured here outside the Central London County Court, has won £12,781 in damages from Britannia Hotels Ltd after £12,000 of jewels were stolen from her
The only time she removed the gems was when she went to bed, she told Central London County Court.
‘What’s the good of having it all and just putting it away somewhere?’ she asked.
Mrs Grainger and her daughter, Joanne, were asleep when the raiders arrived into the early hours.
They were staying in the 500-room seaside hotel as part of a family celebration.
The grandmother told how she woke in bed to see one of the prowlers looming over her.
She assumed he was a member of hotel staff come to investigate an emergency – until he ‘swept up her jewels’ and ran from the room.
Mrs Grainger and her daughter chased after him and his accomplice, but they escaped into the night.
She sued Britannia Hotels Ltd for failing to safeguard her from the risk of theft.
And, ruling in her favour, Judge Peter Wulwik, said she was entitled to £12,781 in damages.
There had been a previous ‘spate of thefts’ at the hotel, said the judge.
He roundly rejected suggestions that Mrs Grainger may have absent-mindedly left her door ajar.
The jewels, given to the 77-year-old by her late husband who died three months before, were stolen from the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone, Kent (pictured). The feisty grandmother chased after the thieves
The thieves had probably obtained a key from somewhere and used it to gain entry, he added.
And, although there was a safe deposit box behind reception, Mrs Grainger was under no obligation to use it.
Given her profound attachment to the items, including her late husband’s wedding ring and watch, it was quite reasonable for her to hang onto them at night.
‘She had no reason to know that the hotel had been subject to a spate of thefts where thieves had gained entry using a key,’ said the judge.
‘As far as she was concerned she was in a room with her daughter and the door was locked. She was entitled to believe her jewellery would be safe.’
The thefts might well have been prevented had the hotel ‘upgraded’ to using key cards, he added.
The court heard Mrs Grainger was left ‘profoundly shocked’ by her ordeal, and she said she felt ‘like a zombie’ afterwards.
The raid left her with a phobia of staying in hotels and compounded the ‘grief reaction’ she was suffering due to her husband’s death.
The judge, however, declined to award compensation for psychiatric injuries as they were not ‘foreseeable’ by the hotel.