{"id":101118,"date":"2023-11-25T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritycovernews.com\/?p=101118"},"modified":"2023-11-25T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T02:00:08","slug":"insurance-fraud-grandfather-49-is-jailed-for-10-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritycovernews.com\/world-news\/insurance-fraud-grandfather-49-is-jailed-for-10-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Insurance fraud grandfather, 49, is jailed for 10 months"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Grandfather, 49, who tried to sue for \u00a3600,000 after claiming a work injury left him so disabled he couldn&#8217;t even pull up his underpants is jailed after being filmed doing his Christmas shopping<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mark Hilton, 49, suffered a soft-tissue injury while working on a truck in 2015<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>An insurance firm placed him under surveillance over suspicions about his claim\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An &#8216;inept&#8217; insurance fraudster who pretended he was so disabled he couldn&#8217;t even pull up his underpants has been jailed and faces a \u00a3150,000 court bill after being filmed doing his Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Hilton, 49, of Dartford, Kent, suffered soft tissue injuries when a heavy fuel hose fell onto him as he filled a tanker while working as a driver for Elliott Thomas Group Ltd in July 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Suing for over \u00a3600,000 in compensation, the grandfather-of-six claimed the injury had left him so badly disabled he couldn&#8217;t even dress himself or lift a cup of tea with his right hand and needed a zimmer frame to walk<\/p>\n<p>But his claim unravelled when private investigators caught him on film walking his dog, Christmas shopping in Ikea, fixing his car and visiting the West Ham store at Stratford.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/22\/10\/78103097-12779123-image-a-1_1700649530933.jpg\" height=\"410\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mark Hilton, 49, of Dartford, Kent, suffered soft tissue injuries when a heavy fuel hose fell onto him as he filled a tanker while working as a driver for Elliott Thomas Group Ltd in July 2015<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hilton&#8217;s claim was thrown out of court by a judge and now, after he admitted contempt of court, he is facing a \u00a3150,000 bill and a ten-month jail sentence for his &#8216;false and grossly exaggerated&#8217; claim.<\/p>\n<p>Sentencing and handing him the costs bill for the case at the High Court, Mr Justice Constable said: &#8216;This was a most calculated &#8211; if ineptly executed &#8211; attempt at defrauding insurers.&#8217;<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE: How fraudsters are pushing up the price of insurance<\/h3>\n<p>The court heard Mr Hilton had sustained only &#8216;soft tissue&#8217; injuries when, while filling a tanker at a depot in 2015, a giant fuel hose came loose and landed on him.<\/p>\n<p>He initially lodged a &#8216;modest&#8217; claim for compensation, but ultimately claimed more than \u00a3600,000 from his former employer&#8217;s insurers QBE UK Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>In statements filed for his claim, Mr Hilton said he needed help getting dressed, could not drive, had to use a Zimmer frame to get about and claimed he could only walk about 20 yards due to his disability.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I cannot put my trousers or underpants up and I need help to get my right arm into sleeves,&#8217; he said in his evidence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;For all intents and purposes I am housebound,&#8217; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The insurers initially admitted liability, but became suspicious of his claims and began an undercover surveillance operation against him over several years.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/22\/10\/78103395-12779123-image-a-2_1700649534963.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The High Court heard Hilton exaggerated the extent of his injuries and claimed he had suffered a significant disability, but an undercover surveillance team tasked by the insurance company filmed him walking and shopping without difficulty<\/p>\n<p>Footage from 2016 showed him driving to a shop, walking in without a stick, working on his car for an extended period of time and then going to the West Ham United store in Stratford, the court heard.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, he was filmed walking his dog without any apparent mobility problems and, in December 2019, he was seen driving to Ikea, where he visited kitchen, lighting and Christmas departments.<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE: Food delivery driver handed \u00a35k bill after falsely claiming he was bitten by a friendly dog<\/h3>\n<p>The claim was ultimately struck out and Mr Hilton hauled to the High Court to face accusations of contempt of court, accused of making &#8216;false&#8217; statements to inflate his compensation claim.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hilton admitted the contempt, apologised for what he had done and appeared before Mr Justice Constable for sentencing in London last week.<\/p>\n<p>Outlining the case for the insurer, QBE barrister Paul Higgins described Mr Hilton&#8217;s \u00a3600,000 compensation bid as a &#8216;very serious fundamental dishonesty case.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In claiming he was so disabled he was effectively housebound and couldn&#8217;t even pull up his pants or walk very far, Mr Hilton had &#8216;grossly exaggerated&#8217; his injuries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He lied repeatedly to his then legal advisors, the experts, the court and QBE,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jailing him for ten months, Mr Justice Constable said Mr Hilton was guilty of a &#8216;very serious&#8217; contempt of court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;By each act, he committed a very serious act of contempt of court,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There was an extremely marked disparity between his real ability to carry out daily activities &#8211; which included working on his car, shopping, walking &#8211; and a very serious curtailment of his lifestyle and abilities, as described repeatedly in his witness statements and acted out in his attempts to mislead the medicolegal experts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The most aggravating aspect of the contempt is the quantum of the claim &#8211; in excess of \u00a3600,000.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This was a most calculated, if ineptly executed, attempt at defrauding insurers.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The judge took into account Mr Hilton&#8217;s mitigation, which included his apology to the court, previous good character and his bad health, having had ministrokes in the past.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I accept that the consequences of these proceedings have been sufficiently distressing to make it improbable he would act in any similar dishonest way again,&#8217; he continued.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The shortest term of custody I can impose is a period of 10 months&#8217; imprisonment.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The judge also made an order that Mr Hilton be liable for QBE&#8217;s costs of the case, which lawyers estimated at about \u00a3150,000.<\/p>\n<p>However, the court heard Mr Hilton will not have the funds to pay.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12779123\/Insurance-fraud-man-jailed-underpants.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grandfather, 49, who tried to sue for \u00a3600,000 after claiming a work injury left him so disabled he couldn&#8217;t even<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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