Man caught on Facebook over staged car crash with partner gets year in jail

A man who staged a car crash with his partner while they were pretending to be strangers has been jailed for one year.

The attempted fraud by David Ward, 30, and Lynsey Ivory, 27, was discovered when the insurance company saw they appeared in each other’s Facebook profile pictures, a court heard.

Ward was the front seat passenger in an Opel Corsa which rear-ended the Volkswagen Passat that Ivory was driving on Corballis Rd, Donabate, on July 22, 2013.

Yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan suspended one year of a two-year sentence on Ward after noting his previous convictions. He said that there must be some deterrent for this type of crime.

The judge fully suspended the two-year sentence for Ivory, noting that she had no previous convictions and that “somebody has to mind the children”.

The couple have two children and have since married.

Ward and Ivory, of The Beeches, Clonshaugh, Priorswood, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempting to dishonestly by deception cause a loss to FBD Insurance between July 22, 2013, and January 1, 2014.

Both of them claimed to be suffering injury from the collision but denied to gardaí who arrived to investigate the crash that they knew each other.

They were transferred to hospital in the same ambulance during which time they continued to pretend to be strangers.

Both Ward and Ivory made voluntary statements to gardaí outlining what had happened and stating that the occupants in the other car were strangers. They later submitted a personal injury claim to FBD Insurance.

Garda Neill Plunkett told Martina Baxter BL, prosecuting, that a claims handler with FBD examined both Ward’s and Ivory’s Facebook accounts, having received their claims, and noted that they appeared in each other’s profile pictures.

The gardaí were contacted and when officers arrived at Ivory’s home for questioning, Ward answered the door.

The court heard that if the couple’s claim had been successful, they could each have been awarded up to €15,000.

Gda Plunkett told Judge Martin Nolan that he had been suspicious of the couple’s claims that they were strangers from his first investigation of the collision.

He said

the damage caused to both vehicles was inconsistent with the account he was given and the air bags had not been deployed in either vehicle as would be expected.