Dublin couple who staged car crash while pretending to be strangers sentenced
A Dublin man who made a bogus insurance claim by staging a crash with his wife and pretending they didn’t know each other has been jailed for a year.
David Ward and Lynsey Ivory of The Beeches, Clonshaugh, Priorswood both lied to gardaí who attended the crash in Donabate in July 2013.
They both previously 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.
The couple, who were not married at the time, were caught after a claims officer noticed they were in each other’s Facebook profile pictures.
Judge Martin Nolan felt he had no choice but to jail Mr Ward, who has seven previous convictions for offences including criminal damage and theft.
He suspended Mr Ward's wife’s sentence in full however, because of her otherwise clean criminal record.
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Dublin couple staged car crash while pretending to be strangers
Both Ward and Ivory claimed to be suffering injury after the collision but denied to gardaí, who arrived to investigate the crash, that they knew each other.
Both later submitted a personal injury claim to FBD Insurance during which they again denied knowing the occupants of the other vehicle.
They both made voluntary statements to gardaí outlining what had happened and stating that the people in the other car were strangers.
Yesterday, Garda Neill Plunkett told Martina Baxter BL prosecuting, that a claims handler with FBD examined both Ward's and Ivory's Facebook accounts, having received their claims and noted that they appeared in each other's profile pictures.
The gardaí were contacted and when officers arrived at Ivory's home to arrest her for questioning Ward answered the door.
The court heard yesterday that if the couple's claim had been successful they could each have been awarded up to €15,000.
