A COUPLE have told how their dream holiday in Iceland turned into a nightmare after a thief stole their passports, money, credit cards, iPad, car key and plane tickets.

Rob and Nadine Temple, from Kirkbymoorside, were waiting in their hotel lobby at 5.30am for a shuttle bus to Reykjavik airport when the man grabbed a bag containing all their important possessions, which they had temporarily left unattended.

Rob, 30, a mechanic, said the British embasssy was unable to help them obtain temporary passports without money and they were unable to get on the plane.

He said they managed to call his mother in Kirkbymoorside, who sent them some money electronically to an Icelandic bank. They waited until the bank opened, only to find it required ID, which they no longer had.

“After two hours of red tape, we found we had gone to the wrong bank,” he said. They eventually managed to obtain the cash and the embassy was then able to help them with temporary passports.

Rob said he and Nadine, 26, got back to Britain 18 hours later, but were flown to Heathrow rather than Manchester, where their car was parked.

After eventually getting home, they applied to Virgin Money to be recompensed for the £2,500 total cost of the theft under a travel insurance policy they had taken out.

But now Virgin has turned down their claim, saying: “From the information provided, you were unaware of the theft as you were sitting away from your luggage and looking out of the window.”

The firm referred to an exclusion clause in their policy, which stated: “Unattended... When you cannot see and are not close enough to your property or vehicle to prevent unauthorised interference or theft of your property.”

Ron said: “I don’t think this is fair. I think Virgin is just trying to find loopholes to avoid paying out.

“If we had put the bag down in the street and left it unattended, that might be a different matter, but this was in an almost deserted hotel lobby.”

He thanked family and friends for rescuing them from their ordeal.

A Virgin Money spokeswoman said she was unable to comment at this stage.