Man accused of fraud over pothole claim

A BLOODIED man who returned home with three missing teeth, a broken nose and skin hanging off his face claimed he had tripped and fell because of a pothole in the road.

Ryan Alexander Walker filed for injury compensation from Oldham Council, after saying he fell due to a road defect between Agnes Street and Fields New Road, Chadderton.

But a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester was told that when asked by different people where the alleged fall happened, he gave at least four different locations.

The 35-year-old, of Mona Road, Chadderton, is now on trial for fraud. Prosecutor David Pickup suggested Walker was “trying it on”.

He said: “He claims as a result of the fall he broke his nose, lost three-and-a-half teeth and suffered a hairline fracture to the jaw. He launched his claim on June 25, 2007 — that is the claim we say is fraudulent, a scam.”

The court heard that on June 2, 2006, Walker had left home wearing a suit and tie but returned covered in blood — and wearing different clothes. He told his former partner, Erin Wilde, that he had thrown his shirt away and changed into a T-shirt at a relative’s house.

Miss Wilde reported that he was in a mess and had skin missing from his face as well as cuts to his knuckles.

Walker told her he had fallen in Middleton Road and called at a relative’s house to change out of his blood-stained clothes before returning home. But en route to the Royal Oldham Hospital for treatment, he admitted — when she threatened to get nurses to test his urine — that he had taken cocaine.

He told her he had tripped a second time, outside a shop in Eaves Lane, Chadderton.

Mr Pickup said Walker told his partner he was going to make a claim and she agreed to go along with it — helping him to take photographs of “bad spots where he could have fallen” on several occasions after the alleged fall.

In August, 2007, the council received a letter signed ”decent Oldham citizen” which brandished the claim fraudulent.

An investigation led to Miss Wilde and her mother, Hazel Reed, who both provided statements which compromised Walker’s story.

Mrs Reed said Walker told her he fell in Thompson Lane, Chadderton. When Walker was arrested, he told police he fell in New Fields Road and said his injuries were bad because he landed face first while holding a drink in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.

Mr Pickup told the jurors: “There’s no dispute that the defendant did receive injuries — what you have to consider is whether those injuries came about because of tripping or in some other way.

“Even now the prosecution does not know how those injuries were caused.

“But we do know the defendant has given differing accounts as to where and how the so-called trip happened.”

The case continues.