Passenger loses 'glass in drink' damages claim
A British man has lost a retrial over his claims that an in-flight drink on Singapore Airlines contained glass, the airline said today.
Stephen Graham Olding of Wales had initially claimed he swallowed glass fragments the size of five-carat diamonds in pineapple juice served during a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong on September 26, 2000.
Mr Olding won 53,000 Hong Kong dollars (€6,700) as compensation in June. But District Court Judge Ian Carlson later overturned his ruling in favour of Singapore Airlines after the carrier proved that Mr Olding had tampered with a medical note he had presented as evidence.
Mr Olding had introduced a radiologist’s note that identified an object on an X-ray as “likely to be a glass particle”. But the airline proved that the note had actually said the object was “unlikely to be a glass particle”.
Yesterday, District Court Judge Gerald Muttrie ruled against Mr Olding in the retrial and awarded full costs to Singapore Airlines, the carrier said in a statement.
The airline said it will take steps to reclaim its costs from Mr Olding, who will appear in court again on January 28 to face charges of using a falsified document.
