They really didn’t think this one through.
A Dublin couple, who have two children, pretended not to know each other and staged a car crash in order to receive an insurance payout.
David Ward (30) was a passenger in an Opel Corsa which rear-ended a Volkswagon Passat, driven by his now-wife Lynsey Ivory (27).
Both of them claimed to have been injured in the collision, but denied to the Gardai that they knew each other.
They were both taken to hospital in the same ambulance, and maintained that they were strangers for the entire journey.
Submitting personal injury claims to FBD, which if successful would have seen them each receive €15,000, they again each denied that they knew the occupants of the other vehicle.
However, according to the Irish Independent, when a claims handler from FBD examined their Facebook pages while investigating their cases, he found that they appeared in each other’s profile pictures.
The gardai were contacted and when they arrived at Ivory’s property, the door was answered by Ward.
Both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempting to dishonestly by deception cause a loss to FBD Insurance on dates between July 22, 2013 and January 1, 2014.
In a letter written to Judge Martin Nolan, Ward expressed his apologies for the scam.
He wrote: “We were struggling with money worries at the time. I worry about not being there for my children.”
