A food delivery driver who tried to sue customers for £3,000 over an alleged dog bite from the family pet had his lie exposed by the household CCTV.
Sean Dore, 37, was filmed as the pet labrador ran up to him with his tail wagging when he arrived to deliver a takeaway.
However, Mr Dore later claimed the “active, lively and friendly” dog had damaged his car and his arm at the farmhouse near Bodelva, in Cornwall, where the Eden Project is located, in July 2021.
The delivery driver presented the dog owners with a quote for £185 for scratches on his car to be repaired and also filed a claim for injury worth up to £3,000.
However, the owners’ home insurer Axa became suspicious when CCTV showed the labrador, known as Marley, with its tail wagging, appearing to enthusiastically greet the delivery driver.
Marley was seen on the CCTV footage enthusiastically greeting Sean Dore as he arrived at the property – Clyde&Co/SWNS
Medical examinations also found no sign of the “deep scratches” Mr Dore claimed the dog had inflicted.
Mr Dore then tried to claim that the video footage had been “doctored”.
However, Deputy District Judge Healey, sitting at Plymouth County Court, dismissed Mr Dore’s case as “fundamentally dishonest” and ordered him to pay Marley’s owners’ legal costs worth almost £5,000.
The lawyer instructed by Axa said: “When Sean Dore met Marley, he clearly thought he’d found a cunning way of getting his car repaired for free and earn some quick money.
“But Mr Dore underestimated both Marley’s owners and the power of surveillance technologies.
“Living in a remote area, Marley’s owners had CCTV installed to monitor access to their driveway. But it wasn’t just the footage that helped our investigators.
“Other aspects of Mr Dore’s claim didn’t add up including vanishing puncture marks, his failure to seek medical attention and a false claim he’d called the NHS 111 phone number – all hallmarks of a dishonest insurance claim.”
In their evidence to the court, Marley’s owners described their family pet as “an active, lively and friendly dog, typical of the labrador breed”.
They said Marley had no propensity to bite and had been under their control at all times during Mr Dore’s visit.
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