Man withdraws €60,000 damages claim over alleged car accident
A 27-year-old married man from Cameroon who is living in Dublin has withdrawn a €60,000 damages claim against the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland who had appeared on behalf of an uninsured driver following an alleged rear-ending accident.
Paul Afumbom, of Kilakee Court, Firhouse, Dublin, is currently under a two-year suspended sentence for possession of a €22,000 falsified cheque, agreed before Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court to the withdrawal and dismissal of his claim.
Judge Linnane also allowed Afumbom’s solicitor in the personal injury claim to come off record on the grounds of a breakdown of trust in that Afumbom had failed to tell his solicitor of his criminal conviction.
Afumbom, who has a family of four, had alleged he suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome with anxiety and depression and headaches following an accident in December 2013 in which he alleged his car had been rear-ended at Newlands Road, Clondalkin, Dublin.
Barrister Michael Murray, who appeared for MIBI with Alan Synnott of Stephen Mackenzie Solicitors, told Judge Linnane the bureau had brought a motion to dismiss Afumbom’s claim.
In October 2017 before Judge Karen O’Connor he had been given a sentence of two years suspended on his own bond of €100 for possession of a false instrument.
Judge O’Connor had heard that Afumbom had allowed a cheque for €22,035.68 to be placed in his personal account at Bank of Ireland, Rathcoole, made payable to Irish Ferries.
The cheque had been intercepted in the post “by a serious criminal element, and Irish Ferries crossed out and replaced with Afumbom’s name".
Detective Garda Shane Barry had told Judge O’Connor that Afumbom had been naive in that he had used his own bank account, giving a correct home address and his driving licence as evidence of identity.
He had received only €1,043.28 for having facilitated a man who approached him to cash the cheque and had pleaded guilty from the very start.
Afumbom told Judge O’Connor he had allowed himself to be “taken in” and that he had not been behind the fraud, losing a good job at Dublin Airport following publicity of his case.
Judge O’Connor, who heard the sum involved had never been recovered, had been told the maximum sentence for the offence was 10 years.
Afumbom appeared in the Circuit Civil Court before Judge Linnane today and withdrew his personal injuries claim and consented to his case being dismissed.
Initially, the address used in his damages claim was Broadfield Close, Rathcoole, Co Dublin, the same address under which he had been charged with the criminal offence.
