• An injured bus driver suing for damage after a
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lorry crash told deliberate lies in parts of his evidence a High Court judge ruled this week. He was still, however, awarded over £3,000 in damages.
Giving judgement in the case of former bus driver Terence Waple, Justice Sheen commented, "I am in no doubt that in part of his evidence he was not telling me the truth."
This view was echoed by two orthopaedic surgeons called as witnesses during the trial. One commented that Waple moved with the 'natural grace of an athlete'.
Waple, 43, suffered whiplash injuries when the bus he was driving collided with a lorry on 18 September 1982 at the Old Street roundabout at Shoreditch in East London. He was forced to give up his job and was still unemployed two years later.
W Henson (Harrow), the owner of the lorry, hired a private detective, suspecting Waple of malingering.
Posing as a writer the detective asked Waple to show him around his converted cottage in Saffron Waldon, Essex. Waple told him he had done the brickwork himself. The detective filmed Waple moving his head and neck.
Waple of Icewoods, Thurston Road, Great Burton, dismissed those allegations saying he felt better on certain days.
Waple's own doctor was suspicious and a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who examined Waple in June this year said his conduct was 'consistent with that of a malingerer.'
Justice Sheen said, "In this type of case it is never easy to determine where the truth lies. Parts of his evidence appear to be deliberately untrue."
Sheen and the defendant company accepted that Waple could not have worked up to 1984. The Judge said he should have sought employment after that time.
Sheen ruled that appropriate compensation on the basis of full liability would be 25,000, but as Waple was a third to blame for the. accident, he awarded him £3,683 plus costs.