Mother ordered to pay £70,000 over false claim garage worker tripped her up
‘Her version is quite implausible’ ‘She was walking fine’
A WOMAN who tried to sue a garage by claiming staff tripped her up with a hosepipe has been exposed as a liar, condemned by a judge and ordered to pay £70,000.
Yvette Thomas, 54, lodged a £ 200,000 compensation claim against the firm, saying the alleged fall had left her reliant on crutches and a walking stick and led to her being sacked from her job.
She also claimed that she had been forced to cancel a holiday to Gran Canaria, quit salsa dancing and stop going to the gym.
But the mother-of-two, who got family members to back up her absurd claims, was caught out by undercover footage which showed her strolling around without any sign of physical impairment. Staff at Southwick Car Centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, denied she tripped – and maintained that the hosepipe only brushed against her leg.
A&E records from the day of the incident show Mrs Thomas was examined by medical staff, but her X-rays showed no signs of trauma.
Now a judge has thrown out her case and ordered to pay £70,000 in costs, with £20,000 to be paid within 14 days.
District Judge Francis Goddard told Bath County Court: ‘In my judgment the case that Mrs Thomas puts forward simply does not add up.
‘I do not find her story in any way believable notwithstanding that she may well have by now convinced herself that what she said happened did happen.
‘Something happened on that day that caused Mrs Thomas to come up with a version of events that, on a hearing of the evidence, is quite implausible.
‘It was not a pre-thought out plan. The story put to the court germinated on that day and was elaborated upon over the months and years that followed.’
Mrs Thomas, who lives in a £250,000 semi-detached house in Trowbridge, said that on May 31, 2012 she took her daughter’s Mini Cooper to Southwick Car Centre for an MOT.
She later claimed that while she was there, car valeter Edward Slow, 62, deliberately tripped her with an industrial braided steel hose attached to a pressure washer he was using.
She claimed she made ‘direct eye contact’ with Mr Slow before stepping over the hose, but said he lifted it and she fell forward onto a concrete step.
‘The employee saw me fall but continued with what he was doing and did not come over and help me up,’ she said.
Two months after Mrs Thomas’s visit, brothers Andrew and Matthew Gregory, who own the garage, received a letter saying that she was taking legal action against them.
Mrs Thomas, who alleged she was sacked from her job as an account manager at media firm Archant because of her injuries, claimed £96,110 in lost earnings. She demanded £60,000 damages for injuries including to both knees and to her left wrist.
Among the other things she claimed for was £12,900 for additional employment losses, £11,268 for care costs, £950 for homeopathic remedies, £3,700 for gardening and DIY, and £2,000 for extra heating because she was housebound.
Mr Slow said: ‘I was rather angry when I heard what she was saying. I remember her coming in. She was walking around and she said the hosepipe rubbed against her leg and that it was an accident waiting to happen.
‘Then suddenly it became this whole story that I had deliberately tripped her up – something I would never do.’
Solicitor Tim Marshall, of DWF Law, which acted for the car centre and its insurers, said: ‘Mrs Thomas painted a picture of being a very disabled woman as a result of this. She said she couldn’t leave the house without a walking stick, drink a cup of tea or clean her teeth.
‘But a surveillance firm hired to follow her found that she was walking fine and there was no sign of any physical impairment – no walking stick, nothing.’
Mrs Thomas has declined to comment.