Industry news roundup: week ended 19 May 2014
Whilst Brits certainly can do their worst when it comes to accident claims fraud, they simply have nothing on the rest of the world – especially Americans!
In fact, certainly seems to me, based on the news reports I’ve seen this week, British fraudsters have simply given up trying very hard. You’ve probably heard of how one 26 year old from Omagh got creative in her local Asda, thinking she had the perfect set-up for a slip and trip personal injury claim by purposefully spilling some oil on the floor and then tripping herself only to be caught on CCTV cameras, haven’t you? Truly this is about as bush-league fraud as you can possibly get.
Meanwhile, just this week a truly amazing event occurred. A personal injury compensation claim was made in New York by a 62 year old man who claims he was bitten by a dog on a city bus, suffering enough trauma to sever his middle finger. While that’s not truly all that remarkable in and of itself, the amount of compensation he’s asking for most certainly is – he is looking for $2 decillion in damages.
Now that’s not a figure I just made up – it’s real. I even looked it up in the dictionary. It’s the number 2 followed by thirty-three noughts. Thirty-three, for pity’s sake! The bollocks on this bloke are bloody enormous!
I’m sorry – I’m absolutely floored by what New Yorkers would call this man’s chutzpah. This is the largest amount of compensation ever requested in the history of the human race. Oh and to make things even more bloody hysterical he’s eschewing the help of a personal injury lawyer and is simply representing himself.
I thought someone was taking the piss out of me when I read this story but it’s 100 per cent true. It just goes to show you that us Brits are seriously lagging behind when it comes to fearless fraud. We’ve obviously been letting the side down here across the pond and we’ll need to come back soon with some even more outrageous claims figures if we want to keep our crown as the so-called compensation capital of the world!