Personal injury news roundup: 7 days ended 6 May 2014:
For anyone out there who’s pointed the finger at personal injury solicitors for being involved in fraud new evidence proves it’s claimants that may be to blame.
That’s right: it looks like that the favourite whipping-boy for the media when it comes to the so-called ‘compensation culture’ gripping the UK might be quite innocent after all! Personal injury lawyers have been quite absent from the news lately in regards to instances of fraud, but I can tell you who has been in the spotlight: claimants themselves.
First up there’s been some serious activity on the organised fraud front, especially when it comes to cajoling people who may have been involved in car accidents to bring road traffic accident claims. Text messaging spam on mobile phones in the UK has been on the rise – an 11 per cent increase over the last three months in fact – which is incredibly suspect considering that the Legal Aid act last year put an end to the practice and actually ran a majority of the claims management companies that specialised in unsolicited texts and phone calls right out of business. This means that the perpetrators of these actions are absolutely organised rings of scammers and fraudsters out to make a quick buck – and I’ll guarantee none of them are licenced to practise law!
Investigators aren’t taking this lying down, though. In fact, more time has been spent looking into spurious claims made by individuals and fraud detection figures have risen higher. In fact just this week another not-so-clever customer was caught red-handed mucking about quite easily in his garden with his wheelbarrow, even though he was claiming some £2 million for a supposedly debilitating injury that left him without the use of his right arm and precluded him from working for the rest of his life.
The unmitigated idiot, who was caught on surveillance video with his proverbial pants down, received a six month prison sentence for his actions. Needless to say his work accident claim was dropped. Well I hope he’s happy! I know I am, especially since he didn’t get away with it. Just a note to all those would-be scammers out there: if you’re claiming you’re disabled, don’t go out in public acting like you’re not, you great big bloody baboons.