An insurance cheat who claimed he had been left with crippling tinnitus after being poked in the ear with a tree branch is now facing a £250,000 court bill after a judge agreed it was a ‘cock and bull story’.
Former cruise ship chef Alan Bills, 74, claimed to have fallen on broken pavement near his home in Whitstable, Kent in 2017, with the end of a tree branch penetrating and damaging his ear as he fell.
He sued housing association Moat Homes Ltd for more than £250,000, saying he tripped where tree roots broke the pavement, resulting in his bizarre ear injury – which he said stopped him enjoying TV.
But he later abandoned his claim and, following a hearing at Canterbury County Court in 2022, a judge found that the accident never happened and declared him ‘fundamentally dishonest’.
He was handed the lawyers’ bills for the case, estimated at nearly £250,000, and has now been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence for contempt of court over his ‘cock and bull story’.
Former cruise ship chef Alan Bills, 74, claimed to have fallen on broken pavement near his home in Whitstable, Kent in 2017, with the end of a tree branch penetrating and damaging his ear as he fell
‘His actions were deliberate and dishonest exaggeration and manipulation of the court process to make a claim for damages,’ said Judge Nigel Lickley KC, sentencing him for contempt at the High Court.
The court heard Mr Bills was a civil engineer who also worked as a chef on SS Uganda, a cruise ship which was requisitioned with him on it to serve as a Red Cross ship during the Falklands War.
His claim began with a 999 call following his ‘accident’ in February 2017. When paramedics turned up, they found him on the ground close to his home in Whitstable, where he said he had fallen fell.
Photos submitted as part of his claim showed him lying on the pavement, covered by a blanket, with his head close to the tree which he blamed for the trip.
He claimed he was seriously injured by the fall, with a tree branch penetrating his ear, leaving him with tinnitus.
He also said he had suffered other injuries which left him needing a walking stick and prevented him taking a £230,000 two-year job as a civil engineer in Oman.
As part of his claim, he put forward a witness statement from a man named Peter Nicholson, who said he had seen the fall and rushed over to help and call for an ambulance.
However, Mr Bills discontinued his claim and the statement was withdrawn, with Judge Tim Parker later finding at the county court in 2022 that the statement was untrue and Mr Nicholson did not see an accident.
Mr Bills had also grossly exaggerated the alleged injuries he suffered and his loss of income, including the £230,000 job offer in the Middle East, the judge found.
He had failed to mention the branch entering his ear until weeks after the alleged fall, and the judge found that it had not actually happened.
His shifting accounts of what happened also convinced the judge that Mr Bills – who he said was a ‘profoundly untrustworthy witness’ – had not suffered any accident at all.
In what the court heard was an ‘extraordinarily prophetic’ move, Mr Bills had complained to the housing association about the pavement previously, specifically mentioning the broken surface at the spot where he said he fell.
‘There are a number of factors which suggest that there was no accident,’ said the county court judge in his 2022 ruling.
‘Mr Bills’ different accounts of the accident are highly inconsistent. His later and more complex accounts are inherently unlikely, as they involve him spinning around for no apparent reason, and encountering a tree branch which precisely entered his ear canal even as he was falling to the ground.’
A judge heard Mr Bills had earlier complained to the housing association about this piece of broken pavement
He added: ‘The findings I have already made show dishonesty going to the root of the claim…Mr Bills has presented his claim in a fundamentally dishonest fashion.
‘When I also take into account that those other findings showed Mr Bills to be a profoundly untrustworthy witness, I conclude that no accident took place.’
The judge found Mr Bills’ claim to have been ‘fundamentally dishonest’ in March 2022, with the housing association’s insurer Zurich then taking him to the High Court this week for contempt of court.
The contempt case proceeded only in relation to Mr Bills’ dishonest use of the false Peter Nicholson witness statement and his own evidence about the injuries he sustained.
For Zurich, barrister Matthew Snarr said the witness evidence which Mr Bills put forward in relation to Peter Nicholson was a ‘cock and bull story.’
‘The defendant’s contempt is towards the extreme end of the scale, especially because of his persistent advancement of false witness evidence,’ he said.
‘Such conduct especially undermines the fabric of the justice system. It is not common and where discovered ought to be dealt with appropriately.
‘The advancement of entirely false evidence is more egregious than mere exaggeration.
‘The defendant’s false assertions as to an ear injury represent entire fabrication, more than mere exaggeration, as do his false representations about the need for and use of a walking stick.
‘The claim advanced was for in excess of £250,000. The amount of money sought is an aggravating factor. This is a very large sum.
‘The defendant’s contempt of court was directly geared towards delivering a favourable outcome to secure himself this sum of money.
‘This isn’t a victimless crime, it’s the public who pay for it.’
Mr Bills accepted he was in contempt of court in relation to the Peter Nicholson statement and his exaggeration of injuries.
In a statement read to the High Court, he said he ‘deeply apologises’ for what he did and that he ‘deeply regrets’ the mistakes he made.
The court heard Mr Bills was a civil engineer who also worked as a chef on SS Uganda, a cruise ship which was requisitioned with him on it to serve as a Red Cross ship during the Falklands War
Sentencing him, Judge Lickley said Mr Bills was guilty of trying to ‘cheat’ his way to ‘massive sums by way of compensation,’ but that the sentence would be suspended, partly due to the current overcrowding in UK jails.
‘False claims impact the wider public in increased premiums,’ he said. ‘The intended harm was high. The claim was exaggerated and he intended to obtain significant recovery.’
He said Mr Bills was ordered to pay Zurich’s costs of the original case, which are estimated at almost £250,000, but that no attempt has yet been made to get the money, because he is ‘impecunious.’
