Chef claiming he was injured by food trolley on Ryanair flight withdraws case

The court heard that Abdullah Qasim had visited his GP 150 times and had 35 physiotherapy treatments

Judge Berkeley, who said the court was about to view CCTV recording of the incident on the Ryanair flight which might make matters worse for Mr Qasim, awarded costs against him. File photo

A 37-year-old chef, who claimed he had been badly injured on a Ryanair flight from Leeds to Dublin, was covertly recorded walking with and without the aid of a crutch, the Circuit Civil Court has been told.

Abdullah Qasim, who was rushed to Beaumont Hospital by a waiting ambulance after the flight landed at Dublin Airport, told Judge Sarah Berkeley that flight attendants had “crashed” a food and drinks trolley into his right knee injuring his leg, hips and lower back.

During cross-examination of Mr Qasim by barrister Kevin D’Arcy, defence counsel for Ryanair, the judge noted she had counted more than 20 inconsistencies in Mr Qasim’s evidence with regard to the incident and his injuries.

After allowing Mr Qasim’s legal team time to confer privately with their client, the judge was told he now wished to withdraw his case which had earlier been transferred from the High Court to the Circuit Court with unlimited jurisdiction.

Mr D’Arcy asked the court to award costs to Ryanair against Mr Qasim.

Judge Berkeley, who said the court was about to view CCTV recording of the incident which might make matters worse for Mr Qasim, awarded costs against him.

Medical report

The court had heard from a medical report by a consultant on behalf of Ryanair that Mr Qasim, who had moved from his home in Drogheda since the accident to Bradford in England, had been covertly recorded walking with and without the aid of a crutch. He had also been videoed preparing pizza at a Bradford takeaway.

Gavin McHugh, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said that from a video he had seen there was no evidence of any significant painful limp that Mr Qasim had demonstrated when he had walked into his surgery for an examination on behalf of Ryanair.

Mr McHugh said there was clearly a lack of truth in Mr Qasim's presentation as evidenced by the discrepancy in lumber spine flexion testing and the “simulated disability” he had adopted and which could, in no way, relate to the relatively minor accident on the Ryanair flight in February 2015. 

Mr Qasim had visited his GP 150 times and had 35 physiotherapy treatments,