23 Jan 2006

In today's ever more litigious society, some less than reputable individuals seem to take the view that this is a license for them to make fraudulent personal injury claims. However what many fail to appreciate is that more and more businesses have some sort of CCTV system in place to record such incidents, allowing concrete evidence to be presented which can see unscrupulous claims thrown out of court.

One of the most blatant examples, I have heard of, concerned two women, a mother and daughter, who decided to stage a forecourt ‘incident’ at a motor dealership. While waiting for the daughter’s car to be fixed a dishevelled mother told garage staff that she had slipped on some oil, causing her to fall, and was threatening to sue. Upon review of the CCTV images, it became apparent that the truth was very different! In reality it had all been staged, with images showing the mother coolly handing her bag to her daughter to hold before proceeding to lie down in the oil. Needless to say the mother did not have much success with her claim for damages. Another impressive win for CCTV!