Fundamental dishonesty in car accident claims

15 March 2025

This case highlights how dishonesty in car accident claims can lead to full dismissal under Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. The court found that the claimant had been fundamentally dishonest in his evidence, resulting in serious legal consequences.

Background:

The Claimant in this case had been involved in a road traffic accident with the Defendant. In his schedule of loss, the Claimant claimed the damages of the pre-accident value of his vehicle less its salvage value on the basis it had been written off, the cost of storing the damage vehicle and the cost of hiring a replacement vehicle. The Claimant’s first witness statement had confirmed he had used the salvage money to obtain a replacement vehicle.

Upon further investigation, the Defendant had found that the Claimant had kept the damaged vehicle, repaired it and then sold the vehicle privately.

Further to this discovery, the Claimant amended his witness statement to state that he had been mistaken in his previous statement and that his vehicle had in fact been repaired and returned to him. Upon cross-examination at trial, the Claimant accepted that his first witness statement was untrue.

The Defendant made an application under S.57 of the 2015 Act for the whole claim to be dismissed on the basis that the Claimant’s whole claim had been fundamentally dishonest. In the first instance, the Recorder found that the Claimant had not persisted in his dishonesty and would instead only be granted damages based upon his genuine and honest heads of loss.

On appeal:

On appeal, Justice Jay overturned this finding. He stated that the language included in Section 57 is especially important as the Court must be satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the Claimant has been fundamentally dishonest, not whether he had persisted in his dishonesty. Justice Jay found that the Claimant had been fundamentally dishonest in advancing a false claim in the schedule of loss and in his first witness statement and therefore the Defendant’s appeal was allowed.

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This article was written by Claire McKie.