Soldier, 34, who insisted trench foot left him ‘walking like a penguin’ loses £3m compensation claim against MoD after he was filmed dancing at barbecue
- Brian Muyepa was injured after having to walk in wet boots in training in 2016
- He said his injury left him so disabled that he had to shuffle and use walking stick
- But footage posted on Facebook showing him dancing to loud music
- Judge found him guilty of ‘fundamental dishonesty’ for ‘exaggerating’ injuries
An ex-soldier has had his record £3m trench foot compensation claim against the MoD thrown out after a judge today found he was lying about the severity of his injuries.
Brian Muyepa, 34, has been left facing £180,000 in lawyers’ bills after falsely claiming severe ‘non-freezing cold injuries’ – more commonly known as trench foot – left him walking ‘like a penguin.’
He had insisted that his injury left him so disabled that he was reduced to shuffling about and relying on a walking stick or his wife to help him get around.
But footage posted on Facebook, which showing him dancing to loud music at a barbecue and seemingly walking ‘normally’ at a friend’s wedding party in Nottingham, raised doubts about the credibility of his claim.
Now Mr Justice Cotter, at London’s High Court, has thrown out his claim and handed him a £180,000 legal costs bill after finding him guilty of ‘fundamental dishonesty’ for ‘hugely exaggerating’ his injuries.
Ex-soldier Brian Muyepa, 34, has had his record £3m trench foot compensation claim against the MoD thrown out after a judge today found he was lying about the severity of his injuries
Mr Muyepa, who was based at Salisbury, had sued the MoD for around £3m compensation – thought to be the highest ever damages claimed for trench foot.
The former Royal Artillery gunner’s case revolved around a promotion exercise he attended in Sennybridge, Wales, in March 2016.
During the exercise, he spent time in a cold water-filled tunnel, but then had to continue for another five-and-a-half hours afterwards in wet boots.
He was later diagnosed with non-freezing cold injury, a disabling condition which is characterised by pain in the extremities and an oversensitivity to cold.
Most commonly experienced by servicemen, it was first noted in the trenches of Europe during the First World War, resulting in its more commonly used description as ‘trench foot.’
Following his diagnosis, it was recommended that Mr Muyepa be protected from cold in future, his lawyers claim.
But after a stay on Ascension Island, he was exposed again at Salisbury Plain in early 2017, when he spent much of his time working outdoors on vehicles.
His condition subsequently worsened and he was diagnosed as having ‘very severe’ cold sensitivity in his feet.
Claiming around £3m damages, but later dropping it to about £1.7m, Mr Muyepa told the judge that the injury had severely impacted on most aspects of his everyday life.
He almost always requires a walking stick, sometimes cannot get out of bed, suffers sleeplessness and often feels ‘like a prisoner’ in his home, he said.
But cross-examining him, MoD barrister Andrew Ward suggested that Mr Muyepa had told a pack of ‘lies’ to inflate the value of his compensation claim.
Mr Muyepa, who was based at Salisbury, had sued the MoD for around £3m compensation – thought to be the highest ever damages claimed for trench foo
The barrister produced a stream of videos, taken from Facebook or from covertly recorded surveillance, which he said showed Mr Muyepa had ‘ramped up and exaggerated’ an ‘extravagant claim.’
In one video, Mr Muyepa can be seen in an apron, marinating chicken at a barbecue, while dancing around to loud music.
Mr Ward suggested it showed that Mr Muyepa had misled care experts about his disability.
But Mr Muyepa – who was medically discharged from the Army in January 2018 – said, like his walking had changed, he now cannot dance enthusiastically as he once would have done.
‘I am dancing like I’m at a wedding,’ he said.
‘I’m not jumping around in the air. I am dancing like a penguin, from side to side.’
Mr Justice Cotter found that Mr Muyepa had suffered minor genuine non-freezing cold injures during his army service and would have been entitled to damages of £97,595.33.
But he stripped him of that compensation and handed him a massive costs bill because of his lies and exaggeration about the impact of his condition.
He said: ‘I find that the claimant suffered a minor non-freezing cold injury.
‘After an initial period of trying to cope with the symptoms, he decided to present a picture to the defendant, his friends, medico-legal experts and the court that he was suffering from a very severe NFCI which had left him greatly disabled.
‘He fundamentally and persistently transformed the claim by dishonest exaggeration.
‘His dishonesty tainted the whole claim from the outset.
‘The claimant started to exaggerate symptoms by limping and using a stick. There was no reason for him to limp and he did not need a stick.
‘Reading the claimant’s account of his disability and then watching the footage of him at the wedding and at the barbecue, any reasonable person would be struck by the marked discrepancies.
‘Those with significant neurological conditions would dearly love to be able to cast aside items such as walking aids for a day and to be able to walk entirely normally; but they cannot do so.
‘Social media clips and surveillance showed the claimant was able to walk normally without a stick, dance, drive – getting into and out of the car unaided in respect of the former it was shown with ease – and undertake shopping.
‘He has hugely exaggerated his symptoms.
‘I am wholly satisfied the claimant was dishonest. He deliberately exaggerated symptoms and functional limitations for financial gain.
‘I find that the claimant began to deliberately and significantly exaggerate symptoms in March/April 2017 in order to secure his discharge from the army with a payout.
‘He was dishonest from a very early stage and before the case was commenced..’
According to lawyers, Mr Muyepa will now be liable for the MoD’s legal costs of approximately £280,000, less the £97,000 which the judge found his claim was actually worth.
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