Make the cheque out to...

With a good imagination and a brass neck, there is quite a lot of money to be made:

• Lorraine Capener, 53, a mortuary technician, received £15,000 from an employment tribunal in October after developing a morbid fear of death
• A soldier injured when he fell from an army lorry as he "windsurfed" on the tailgate received £75,000 from the MoD
• A Scots policeman won £2,000 after being bitten by his own dog; another got £5,000 for exposure to "excessive" noise while on motorcycle duty
• Karl Jones, a fraudster, was awarded nearly £248,000 in 2003 after suffering from erectile dysfunction when he slipped in a jail shower
• Marvin Pomfret received £75,000 in 2002 after blaming his violent criminal career on his attendance at a school for children with learning difficulties
• The mother of an unruly teenager who suffered from anxiety after he was expelled for taking a knife to school won £11,000 from Greenwich council

Small fry when you compare it to this:

A MOTHER who took an overdose while suffering from post-natal depression has won £2.8 million from the ambulance service which, she claims, arrived too late to save her from permanent brain damage.

Post-natal depression is a horrible thing, but come on! This woman is being compensated for trying to take her own life. If she had succeded, would her husband have sued the drugs company for making painkillers too accessible?

Filed under: Compensation Culture