A Dublin woman was described by a judge yesterday as one of a number of people suffering from a disease, the symptoms of which were concoction and exaggeration.
Circuit Court President Mr Justice Esmond Smyth, after dismissing a €38,000 claim against Dunnes Stores for damages by mother of four Mrs Maria Moran (49), handed down a stern warning to anyone attempting to hoodwink judges.
"The courts are aware of the fact that there are an increasing number of fraudulent or exaggerated claims being made and judges scrutinise with great care such cases," he said.
He understood the Government was considering proposals to make it easier for the DPP to initiate criminal proceedings against people who had been less than truthful in bringing such cases before the courts. "If the DPP so requests it, the file in this case can be made available to his office," Mr Justice Smyth said.
He said some fraudulent cases were concocted or exaggerated arising from an accident which actually happened but sometimes such accidents never happened at all.
"It seems that the happening of an accident leads inevitably to the hope for compensation, whether it be as a result of negligence on the part of a defendant or not." Mr Justice Smyth told Mr David Nolan, counsel for Dunnes Stores, that he was entirely satisfied with the account given by witnesses called on behalf of the store.
He said Mrs Moran, Nicholas Street, Christ Church, Dublin, claimed to have been injured as a result of negligence by Dunnes while she was ascending an escalator which "jerked" and knocked her backwards down the escalator.
He had no difficulty believing she had a child in a buggy and up to eight bags of shopping tied to the handles of it as she ascended the escalator. She had fallen backwards and had to be rescued by firemen after her hair had caught in the moving mechanism.
"I do not believe her account or that of her witness, Ms Carol Keogh," Mr Justice Smyth said. He said the accident had happened after Mrs Moran had lost her footing because she had been dangerously carrying a child in a buggy with a number of grocery bags attached to it. He dismissed the case with an order of costs against the plaintiff.