Man jailed after false personal injury claims against London boroughs

A man who made false personal injury claims against eight London boroughs and Transport for London has been jailed.

Nathan Williams, 38 and unemployed, claimed to have tripped and hurt himself on pavements in Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Westminster, Wandsworth, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Southwark during a 17-month period in 2007 and 2008.

The police were called in after an investigator at an insurance company noticed the multiple claims.

Williams pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to eight counts of fraud. He was jailed for 15 months for each offence, to run concurrently. He will have to service a minimum of half that time in prison.

Prosecutors claimed that if Williams had been successful, he could have obtained more than £20,000 in compensation with a total cost to the local authorities of £100,000.

According to the Daily Mail, judge Christopher Hardy described Williams’ actions as  “a carefully planned course of dishonest conduct” and “a serious and sustained campaign”.

He added: “Local authorities would have lost a large amount of money, which would have fallen on the council taxpayers for those boroughs and on the travelling public for TfL.”

Defence barrister Lewis Green said Williams was not planning to fund a lavish lifestyle, but wanted to help his landlord, who was in trouble with his mortgage company.