Personal injury claimant receives 12-month prison term for faking work injury

A personal injury claimant who falsely claimed to have suffered a fall at work has received a 12-month custodial sentence.

The High Court in London handed down the sentence on 8 December, after law firm BLM, acting on behalf of the employer, Priority Freight, and its insurer, Aspen, sought to find the claimant in contempt of court and for a full range of orders, including imprisonment, a fine and costs.

The claimant was employed as a warehouse operative for a freight company in Coventry in 2016 when he claimed to have suffered an injury jumping from a container to the floor.

The claim was found to be fundamentally dishonest at Walsall County Court in June 2019. The court found the claimant had knowing made a series of false statements and sworn court testimonies.

Deputy High Court Judge Charles Morrison concluded last month that the claimant’s conduct had adequately met the ‘custody threshold’ given the serious nature of his contempt and immediate custody was the only appropriate option.

Christopher Kilner of BLM commented: “This was a claimant who deliberately sought to pull the wool over the court’s eyes by concocting a calculated and elaborate plan to obtain financial benefit for an accident that never happened. This is a timely reminder, if one were needed, that such deception will not be tolerated.”

Following the hearing, a spokesperson from Aspen Insurance added: “This is our second successful fraud case in as many months. We hope our fraud strategy is deterring claimants from making fraudulent claims, to the benefit of our policyholders.”

The court also ordered the claimant to pay the defendant’s costs.

Mark Dugdale