Atwal alleged negligent treatment that left him unemployed and dependent, and claimed compensation.

Sandip Singh Atwal, a Disc Jockey (DJ) who exaggerated the effect of his relatively minor injuries in a bid to defraud National Health Service (NHS) of £800,000 (₹7.15 crore) has been jailed for three months.

Atwal has been also asked to pay £75,000 (₹67 lakh) in the legal costs.

Justice Spencer of High Court while sentencing him, stated that 14 allegations of contempt had been proved against Atwal, who claimed compensation for loss of past and future earnings and personal care that the judge called “dishonest exaggeration”.

After being injured in an assault in June 2008, Atwal went to Calderdale and Huddersfield Hospital in West Yorkshire, where he was treated for fractures to his index finger on his right hand and the ring finger of his left hand, and a laceration to his lower lip.

Atwal alleged that negligent treatment that left him unemployed and dependent, and claimed compensation.

Hospital admitted negligence and offered £30,000 (around ₹26 lakh) which High Court stated that was a generous offer.

However, Atwal sought £837,000 (around ₹7.48 crore) and as the case continued in Courts, he was filmed lifting heavy objects and performing as a DJ, belying his claim of disability due to treatment and loss in employment suffered due to it.

When the fraud was uncovered, Atwal agreed to accept the initial offer of £30,000, but NHS Hospital strongly defended its position in the courts.

Judge Spencer further added that,“(You) pursued a dishonestly aggravated claim, and by November 2014 when your schedule of loss and damage was served, the claim was pleaded at over £837,000. Those claims were based upon what you were falsely telling the medical and care experts.”

High Court added that,“The depths of your deception were revealed by covert video surveillance in October 2015, which proved that you were perfectly able to work, to drive, to lift and to carry, activities which you were still claiming not to be able to manage".

Source PTI

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