Trio guilty of contempt of court after bogus claim against council
Two men involved in an attempt to claim compensation from a London borough for an ankle injury supposedly caused by a pothole have pleaded guilty to contempt of court.
Marc Bowyer, 27, of Rush Green, and James Jones, of Dagenham, pleaded guilty at the Royal Courts of Justice on 24 July.
A third man, 59-year-old Richard Bowyer (Marc Bowyer’s father), had denied any involvement but he was found guilty of contempt of court on 26 July.
The three will be sentenced today.
The background to the case was an injury Marc Bowyer sustained on the night of 11 June 2006, when England played Paraguay in the World Cup.
On his way home from a party at a friend’s house, Bowyer suffered a double fracture to his ankle.
He claimed the injury was caused when he tripped on a pothole outside Hornchurch Sports Centre. Bowyer also insisted that he was not drunk, having only had a couple of drinks.
Jones, who had called the ambulance, and the father backed up this version of events.
A compensation claim was launched against Havering Council. Richard Bowyer took a manager from the sports centre to point out the pothole that was supposed to have caused the fracture.
Havering initially accepted liability and started to value the claim. However, suspicions were raised when written A&E records from the ambulance team indicated that Bowyer had fallen from a wall.
Other records revealed that the ambulance had found Bowyer Jnr and Jones near a lake in Harrow Lodge Park, a long way from the pothole.
The local authority also obtained a tape of the 3 am 999 call, in which Jones said his friend had jumped off a wall.
As a result Havering withdrew its admission of liability and defended the claim. However, Bowyer continued with his claim.
Jones suggested in a witness statement that the reason he told the emergency services about the wall rather than the pothole was so they would take the call more seriously and arrive at the scene more quickly.
He also said that he and Bowyer had moved away from the pothole site to avoid cyclists in the area. Havering pointed out that this was unlikely, given the time of the incident.
Marc Bowyer finally withdrew his compensation claim in October 2010, more than four years after the incident.
Cllr Roger Ramsey, Cabinet Member for Value at Havering, said: “This case could have cost Havering Council well over £100,000. This is local taxpayers’ money and officers’ time which could be better spent on front-line services for the elderly and vulnerable. Claims against the public purse which are found to be fraudulent should be pursued in the strongest manner and the people responsible prosecuted."