A judge has warned that money lodged in the court to the benefit of children arising out of personal injury claims was not to be used for family expenses.
Judge Mary Collins said in the District Court that Oluwatimileyin Olaleye (now four) had been awarded €4,500 damages last year for injuries he received in a car crash in which his mother, Veronica, had been the driver. The boy’s father, Ibrahim Olaleye, Castlegate Drive, Adamstown, Lucan, Co Dublin, had applied to court for the release of €1,500 from his son’s award to buy another car for the family.
The judge, refusing to release any money from the boy’s court account, said such awards had never been meant for the purchase of a car or other family expense.
She said the money was to remain in court until Oluwatimileyin was 18, when it would be released to him with any interest gained. The boy had been a passenger in his mother’s car which had been involved in a crash in 2010. He had sued his mother, through his father, and a settlement of €4,500 had been approved by the court.