Serial claimant over crashes has latest one dismissed
A FORMER law student ‘forgot’ he made up to 20 accident and other claims but only disclosed a portion of these to the Injuries Assessment Board when making his latest one, a court heard.
Scott Ryan, who is in his early 30s, had brought a case against a taxi driver who had previously seen him having a similar accident in the same spot, a judge heard.
Waterford Circuit Civil Court was told how former legal studies student Mr Ryan is being investigated by gardaí regarding fake claims.
The court was told how a driver, Leo Power, called him a ‘mickey man’ as Mr Ryan was continuously braking in front of him to manufacture an accident at The Manor in the Waterford city on December 15, 2014.
Mr Ryan was assessed by a consultant in February 2015 about a separate November 2014 accident. Mr Power was present at the same junction when an incident occurred between Ryan and a pizza delivery driver. That case failed in the District Court.
At the Circuit Civil Court, Mark Flynn, for Mr Power’s insurer, accused Mr Ryan of trying to apportion injuries sustained in the November 2014 accident to the December collision. ‘You thought you’d have another crack at it,’ said Mr Flynn.
Mr Ryan denied he had laughed and told a garda: ‘I’m about as injured as the man in the moon.’ Mr Ryan, formerly of Stephen Street, Waterford, and Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, told the court: ‘The guards don’t like me.’
But Mr Flynn put it to Mr Ryan this was one in a long line of claims including some that were not flagged during discovery. Discovery is a pre-trial process where both sides in a case exchange evidence and information.
Mr Flynn recalled a collision between Mr Ryan and a car in April 2000, for which a claim was made.
Similar claims were made in July and August 2010 with claims for accidents in January 2004, March 2006 and July 2012. There were ‘multiple’ road accidents from 2011 to 2013, the court heard. There were also evidence of claims between 2006 and 2009 and from 2013 to 2015. Claims regarding eight assaults were not disclosed in the notice of particulars, it emerged.
Dismissing the case, Judge O’Kelly told Mr Ryan: ‘If you don’t give up driving voluntarily, you might have to give it up involuntarily.’
WHILE the decision of Judge Eugene O’Kelly to strike out a false injury claim from a serial litigant in Waterford Circuit Civil Court is welcome, it also raises questions about more effective sanctions for culprits, in order to crack down on insurance fraud.
It is, after all, law-abiding drivers who pay the cost of our burgeoning compensation culture in higher insurance premiums. Public confidence in the system is also eroded when serial litigants seem to escape without penalty, other than a proverbial slap on the wrist.
Defendants like Scott Ryan, former legal student now in his 30s, seems like a prime example of the menace that now regularly confronts both the legal system and the insurance industry.
The court heard Mr Ryan was being investigated by the gardaí for fake insurance claims when he brought his trumpedup damages case against a taxi driver.
Taxi driver Leo Power had earlier called Ryan a ‘mickey man’ because he was continuously braking in front of him to manufacture an accident in the same spot in Waterford city.
The court also heard that Mr Ryan had ‘forgot’ to inform the Injuries Assessment Board of 20 earlier claims. It is a common thread in many serial litigant cases that such attacks of amnesia occur during evidence and hearings.
Mr Ryan’s colourful driving history also included ‘multiple’ road traffic accidents from 2011 and 2013.
It appears that the brazen attempts of serial litigants like Ryan to defraud insurance companies may continue unless a system of deterrents is introduced, be that in the form of a financial penalty or a term of imprisonment.
It is patently obvious that the current situation, whereby cases are dismissed and claimants are subjected to the withering scorn of the bench, is having little effect on stemming the tide of insurance fraud.