Evidence gathered by Horwich Farrelly, has lead to a Southampton man’s personal injury claim has been kicked out of court after it was revealed he wasn’t even in the vehicle at the time of the incident.
Leszek Rogalinski, had stated he was sitting in his parked car when another vehicle rolled into his, allegedly causing six months of lower back pain.
But the defendant firm proved that the construction worker had lied about being injured and was ordered to pay insurance company Horizon’s legal costs of £7,744.
The claim followed a minor incident in September 2013 when the defendant, a local bank worker, did not fully apply the handbrake of her Ford Focus as she parked on Mayfield Road, close to the University of Southampton’s Highfield campus.
There was no disputing that the Ford had travelled around ten metres and had made minor contact with Rogalinski’s unoccupied Audi A6. However, Rogalinski, who had been washing his car at the time, sought to take advantage of the situation by lying about being in the vehicle at the time of the bump, going on to submit a £2,400 claim for back pain to the defendant’s insurer, Horizon.
Given the conflicting accounts between the two parties, Horizon instructed law firm Horwich Farrelly to probe the claim further. Their counter fraud team’s investigation revealed a number of cracks in Rogalinski’s version of events, which became clear to the judge once presented in court.
Ronan McCann, a partner at Horwich Farrelly, said: “The claimant clearly thought he could take advantage of a minor collision following a small error on the part of the defendant.
“As a result, he dragged the defendant through a legal battle, causing huge amounts of unnecessary stress and inconvenience. But thanks to the defendant’s clear memory of the events leading up to the collision, we were able to disprove Rogalinski’s statement in court, with the result of securing justice for insurer Horizon and their innocent policyholder.”
Last month Horwich Farrelly helped Liberty Insurance expose two other fraudsters.
Rafal Sikorski, 29, a personal trainer, and Anna Radomska, 31, a Playboy model, were involved in a collision in May 2015, after a Honda Jazz collided with their Mercedes at the Beckton Park roundabout, east London. A couple of weeks later Sikorski and Radomska went on to submit claims to the insurer of the Honda Jazz – Liberty Insurance. The claims for £6,700 and £6,500 respectively were for neck, knee, shoulder and back injuries, with recovery expected to take around seven months.
However, they both took part in intensive martial arts training just weeks after a suspected staged accident in London. The findings contradicted their accounts that they had suffered injuries lasting around seven months, and had needed extensive physiotherapy.