Fighting Fraud - Ian Miller, 1 Chancery Lane
02/08/16. Judgment in the case of Da Costa v Sargaco [2016] EWCA Civ 764 was handed down last week and represents the latest round of the struggle between claimants bringing claims for injury or damage arising out of road traffic accidents and defendant insurers alleging that claims are fraudulent. The case deals with the cogency of evidence required to establish an allegation of fraud, with the inferences which can be drawn from evidence and with the exclusion of a claimant from court whilst the other is giving evidence.
The facts of the case conform to a familiar pattern: a claim for losses arising out of damage to mopeds brought by members of a certain community in London. The claimants’ case was that their parked mopeds were struck by a vehicle, the driver of which had apparently disappeared or at least had not participated in proceedings*. One of the claimants had had three other accidents despite having only arrived in the country in 2010. One of the claimant’s mopeds was involved in another accident etc…
The judge ordered each claimant be excluded from court whilst the other gave evidence. She subsequently found that...
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