CITY TRIBUNE
Car accident was ‘staged’ for insurance con attempt
Fake claims for personal injuries, made against an insurance company by a man involved in a staged road traffic accident, were dismissed at Galway Civil Court.
Flavius Grancea (22), who lives with his in-laws, the Samu family, at 33 Fana Glas, Ballybane, sued his house mate, Alexandra Badila, for injuries to his back, left knee and head, which he claimed he had sustained in a two-car collision on April 8, 2014.
Grancea also made a separate, second claim for personal injuries against Axa Insurance DAC.
The insurance company fought the case, contending the ‘accident’ had been staged for the purpose of making false insurance claims.
The court heard that Badila, who was unemployed had bought a Saxo car for €500 and obtained insurance from Axa on March 27, 2014 – twelve days before the ‘accident’ occurred.
The front seat passenger in the Audi A4 car, which the Saxo had purportedly rear-ended, was a Romanian woman named Wirginia Qutja, who had paid a €200 deposit to secure Badila’s Axa insurance policy.
Róisín McGuinness from Axa’s special investigations unit, told the hearing Ms Qutja was already an Axa customer at the time of this incident. She said that during her investigation of the plaintiff’s personal injuries claims, she noticed that Ms Qutja’s mobile phone number and email address were used to contact the insurance company for a quote two weeks before the insurance policy was taken out for the Saxo car and that Qutja had paid the deposit.
Only two instalments were subsequently paid and the policy was cancelled by Axa on June 14, 2014 for non-payment of instalments.
She said Ms Qutja also made a claim against Badila’s insurance policy and Axa for personal injuries in relation to the collision, but withdrew her claims when told by the insurance company that she was being joined to the proceedings before the court as a co-defendant.
Neither Badila nor Ms Qutja were present in court.
With the help of a Romanian interpreter, Grancia told the hearing he was a front seat passenger in a Citroen Saxo car being driven by Badila. His pregnant wife and his mother-in-law, Tita Samu, were back seat passengers.
He claimed their car, which was travelling from Fana Glas to Cluain Riocard, rear-ended an Audi A4 (being driven by Alexsander Qutja) which braked suddenly as it approached the Bothar na Choiste junction with the Tuam Road on the outskirts of Galway city.
He said he got out after the impact and dragged his pregnant wife from the back of the car.
Someone rang the emergency services and three fire brigades and three or four ambulances arrived on the scene.
John O’Donnell, BL, who represented Axa insurance, put it to Grancea that while Gardaí who examined the scene found the Saxo car was effectively written off, there was no corresponding damage to the rear of the Audi, save for a popped brake light cover.
Mr O’Donnell said no collision could have occurred because the Saxo was found by Gardaí 15 metres behind and up a hill from the Audi and its extensive damage was inconsistent with the lack of damage to the rear of the Audi.
In reply to the barrister, Grancea said he was an honest man and had never been in court before.
Detective Garda Bernard McLoughlin, who investigated the alleged accident, gave evidence to the contrary.
He said this accident had occurred at around 10.30pm on the date in question and Grancea had appeared before Longford District Court just hours beforehand and had subsequently received convictions for theft and possession of weapons.
Det. McLoughlin said that he had never come across an accident like this one before. “Nothing added up. It made no sense. In my twelve years attending the scenes of accidents, alarm bells started ringing with this one.
“The firemen had to cut the roofs off the cars to get the people out. It didn’t appear to me that anybody was injured. Nothing matched up. It was very different to any other RTA I ever attended,” he said.
He pointed out that there was no debris on the road to indicate the point of the supposed impact.
He said no criminal proceedings had been brought as yet because the investigation was still ongoing and a file on alleged fake, staged accidents was being compiled at present.
Grancea, the court was told, got on a stretcher and spent a few hours in A&E before being told to go home and see his own GP. Two medical reports handed into court stated he suffered only superficial soft tissue injury.
Grancea said his wife had been kept for a few days in the hospital. He denied a suggestion that she had not been in the Saxo car at all. She was not present in court.
Judge John King said that placing everything else aside, and just looking at the photos of both cars, along with the location of the vehicles at the scene and the inconsistencies of Grancea’s evidence, he could not find for the plaintiff and dismissed his claims for damages. He also awarded costs in favour of Axa.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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