Man discovers there's no point lying over spilt milk
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A man who claimed he would sue a Spar shop after slipping on a wet floor was seen setting up the 'accident' on CCTV.
Now the store's owner, Shane Gleeson, is preparing to complain to gardai if the customer pursues his claim.
Alert staff at Gleeson's Spar in Limerick city observed the man acting suspiciously after he entered the shop and went to the refrigerated section.
CCTV footage of the incident shows the man, who appears to be aged in his early 20s, pouring some milk onto the floor before deliberately stepping in it and falling.
The footage also shows the man making a phone call while still lying on the shop floor.
"He told me he had phoned his solicitor and that it was going to cost me thousands (of euro) but we have heard nothing from his solicitor yet and if he does put in a claim we will ask the gardai to prosecute him for fraud," said Mr Gleeson.
Dodgy claims continue to cost the insurance industry more than €100m a year -- with an anti-fraud hotline taking three times as many calls as it did three years ago.
More than half the calls received last year related to motor damage and industry followed by household and public liability claims.
"Our view is that the majority of claims are genuine and that only a small minority are fraudulent or exaggerated," said Michael Horan of the Irish Insurance Federation.
"But the general feeling within the industry is that there is a link between the recession and the temptation to make a fraudulent or exaggerated claim."
Other insurance frauds that have been uncovered over the past few years include a man who, on the basis of a back injury, made a claim for loss of future earnings estimated at €225,000.
He claimed he could not cook, clean, coach his GAA team, drive, or work.
But the insurance firm hired an investigator who gathered evidence, including video, of the claimant working as a painter and singing in a band. No claim was paid.
- Fergus Black
Irish Independent
