Bad vibrations in a bogus case

Ambulancechasing lawyers Mellor Hargreaves Ltd drummed up businesses with adverts aimed at people who’d got compensation for vibration white finger – an industrial injury caused by repeated use of power tools.

The Oldham-based firm said victims could get more money.

One case it took on was that of Graham Thomas, a former miner from Glamorgan in South Wales, who’d already been paid £10,500.

It told Mr Thomas that he’d been undercompensated and convinced him to sue his first firm of solicitors for £16,500, claiming they were negligent.

“The action progressed at a leisurely pace,” Mr Recorder Cameron acidly remarked in a judgment published last week.

When the case finally came to court after eight years, it was heard at the county court in Leeds.

The judge dismissed it, ruling that not only was Mr Thomas not entitled to any more money, he probably never had vibration white finger at all.

That should have ended the matter, but Mr Thomas appealed and the case ended up before Mr Recorder Cameron, who upheld the original judgment.

“I express some regret that the claim was ever brought,” his judgment reads.

“The civil justice system exists to enable injured parties to recover compensation of genuine wrongs.

“It does not exist to service artificial claims stirred up by advertisements.”

Mellor Hargreaves Ltd went into administration in July. Here’s roofer Jason Armstrong, who charged one elderly victim £60 each for roof tiles that cost him £6 each.

When one customer queried his prices, he “went mad, shouting and swearing and was very angry”.

Now the 42-year-old, from Blackpool, has been jailed for a year following a prosecution brought by trading standards officers in Warrington, Cheshire.

In sentencing the crook for six fraud offences, Judge Thompson sitting at Chester crown court said: “You preyed on the vulnerability of your victims as it was obvious when you met them that they were elderly. You thoroughly intimidated and bullied an elderly man.”

Councillor Judith Guthrie, Warrington Borough Council executive board member for public protection, said: “This sort of crime is despicable and causes a great deal of anguish and loss to vulnerable people.”