A mum who 'dishonestly' claimed she fractured her ankle after falling down a drain has been ordered to pay a council £13,000. Mary Brennan has been told to cough up the cash after her compensation claim against Rochdale council was thrown out of court.
Mrs Brennan, of Birnam Grove, Heywood, claimed she injured herself after she fell into an uncovered drain while walking to her local newsagent at about 7.30am on May 7, 2016. But in court the holes in her story were found to be almost as big as the one she claimed to have fallen into.
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One account of the incident referred to her falling into the narrow hole up to her waist, but another said it was so deep that only her head was showing. The council fought the claim by showing that four days before the alleged incident the hole had been secured.
There were also inconsistencies between the initial claim, medical reports, proceedings, witness statements and the ambulance call transcript, which were highlighted during the hearing. The judge found Mrs Brennan's explanation for a 90-minute delay between the time of the accident and the call for an ambulance unconvincing and the court was also sceptical about a witness who said he found Mrs Brennan in the hole and his explanation for how he came to be involved in the case.
Mrs Brennan's daughter also conceded that the care and assistance, for which a claim had been made, was care she was already providing. During the November 2020 trial, the judge accepted the council's defence and accepted that everything had been done that could have been done, so the claim failed.
The judge found the claim to be 'fundamentally dishonest'. Mrs Brennan was recently ordered to pay the council's legal fees totalling £12,786.48.
Julie Murphy, chief finance officer at Rochdale council said: "It is totally unacceptable to submit a false claim and then expect council tax payers to pay up. All insurance claims made against us are taken very seriously and thoroughly investigated.
"If we find discrepancies, as we did in this case, these can be used as evidence in court. This is public money and those who submit dishonest claims can end up paying all our costs. This case shows how expensive it can be trying to defraud the council and the borough's council tax payers."
