A teacher at a leading public school has been accused of faking a £1.8million compensation claim after falling over at work.
Lindsey Shaw, 60, broke her wrist after slipping on a freshly mopped floor outside a meeting room at Mill Hill School, north London, where she worked for 30 years.
The head of boarding, who earned up to £100,000 per year, needed surgery on her wrist and says she has since developed chronic pain in her right hand, arm, shoulder and back.
After the procedure, her right hand and wrist were highly sensitive and she says she couldn’t tolerate them being touched – even by bedding – and claims her career has been ruined.
But the foundation which runs the £35,000-a-year school has accused the teacher of ‘exaggerating’ her symptoms to boost her compensation claim.
Lawyers for Mill Hill produced secret video surveillance evidence allegedly showing her throwing a ball for her dog with her right hand.
They told Central London County Court the video evidence also includes footage of Mrs Shaw driving a Land Rover with both hands on the wheel and carrying her shopping with both hands.
The teacher stepped down from her job at Mill Hill after her accident, which she says caused her psychological damage as well as arm injuries.
She went on to develop chronic regional pain syndrome and depression, which blocked her future career path to becoming a head teacher or senior manager, her lawyers claim.
Although it admits primary liability for the slip, the school foundation disputes the amount of compensation claimed and says Mrs Shaw should have watched where she was putting her feet.
Mill Hill’s barrister, Robert O’Leary, said the footage contradicted Mrs Shaw’s claims that her right hand is still badly impacted by her June 2016 fall, when she slipped on the floor and landed on her right side and wrist.
The surveillance was carried out ‘over a long period on various occasions’, the lawyer explained.
He added: ‘We say the video evidence is of a lady going about her day-to-day affairs in a perfectly ordinary way with no evidence of any difficulty whatever using her right limb.’
The new evidence suggests Mrs Shaw has ‘exaggerated the extent of her injuries’, he told Judge Richard Roberts in Central London County Court.
But Mrs Shaw’s barrister, David White, flatly rejected the accusation and said there was ‘no substance’ to the video footage, which could add £200,000 to the trial’s legal costs.
He added that nothing said by his client is inconsistent with the new evidence.
Expert medical reports made clear her symptoms can fluctuate, said the barrister, and in her own evidence Mrs Shaw had explained that ‘if she goes shopping she tries to use her right hand to carry light things’.
Information about the school available online shows Mrs Shaw taught English and was a housemistress at Mill Hill’s Ridgeway House – before being promoted to director of boarding.
Former headmaster Dr Dominic Luckett said of her: ‘Lindsey’s prodigious work ethic helped make her not only an outstanding housemistress but also a superb director of boarding.’
Mrs Shaw’s case has yet to come to trial but reached court as both sides’ barristers clashed over whether the new video material should be allowed to form part of the evidence.
Judge Roberts ruled that the video footage can be deployed at trial.
War correspondent Richard Dimbleby, Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton and Sir Dennis Thatcher are among the 124-year-old school’s alumni.
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from metro.co.uk
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