When champion Scott Maw was injured in a car accident, he told his GP he was having difficulty carrying shopping bags.
While claiming a whiplash-style shoulder injury, he failed to mention, however, that he was still an expert at lifting logs, concrete balls and even a Transit van.
The decision to seek compensation for injuries from the accident, in what lawyers said was a “dishonest” insurance claim against the other driver, has left him out of pocket of £25,000.
Two weeks after his accident in Sheffield, Maw, 36, was still able to pull an eight-tonne tractor and be crowned Log Press King at the Peak District Highlands Games.
And, six months later, while his injury problems persisted, leaving him, he claimed, “restricted” from carrying shopping bags, doing DIY and “getting in and out of the bathroom,” he bagged the Strongest Man title of Yorkshire.
Unsurprisingly, the other driver’s insurance company questioned the extent of his injuries.
Six months after his accident, Scott Maw claimed the title of Yorkshire’s Strongest Man, despite saying his injury problems persisted.
Maw (pictured, winner of Yorkshire’s Strongest Man 2023 award) claimed the accident left him ‘restricted’ from carrying shopping bags, doing DIY and ‘going in and out of the bathroom’.
Maw insists that he was really hurt, that he was able to continue competing as a strongman since his symptoms were “intermittent” and that he only dropped his claim because things “got out of control.”
When his claim was challenged, documents were lodged at Sheffield County Court.
But eventually the strongman dropped his claim and agreed to pay the other party’s legal costs of £15,000, the total bill rising to £25,000 when his own fees were added.
The case has been made public by Markerstudy Insurance Services Limited and its HF lawyers as an example of how people who make “fundamentally dishonest” insurance claims can pay a very high price.
In August 2022, Maw, a plasterer, was driving his Vauxhall Insignia with his partner as a passenger, when a Ford T200 Connect made an unexpected U-turn and collided with the side of his car.
There was no doubt that the other driver was to blame.
When his insurer filed a claim against the other driver’s insurer, the other driver claimed that he had suffered a whiplash-type problem in the form of a shoulder blade injury.
Graeme Mulvoy, the HF partner responsible for the case, said Maw was examined by a GP in September 2022 and January 2023 while he still claimed to be injured.
There were no visible signs of injury, such as bruising, and “everything was based on her story.”
Mulvoy said that “some of the injuries he described essentially could not have been caused or were not caused with the same severity” by the accident.
Maw said he was still fit to compete in August’s Highland Games event as he was used to “working through problems”.
At the Highland Games, about two weeks after the accident, Mr Maw pulled a tractor under his own power, carried stones weighing 170kg (more than 26 stone) and lifted logs weighing 120kg (more than 18 stone). ) eight times per minute.
Mulvoy said: “You wouldn’t have expected someone who suffered those injuries to be able to do it.”
The lawyer added that he was capable of performing tasks that “required superhuman strength” and at the same time stated that “carrying groceries was too difficult for him.”
Commenting on the strongman competitions, Mr Mulvoy added: “It downplayed the significant strain his body would undergo in these events.”
Maw told the Mail that he had retired from competition after more than a decade participating in strongman events. He said he still occasionally suffers from shoulder pain caused by the accident.
He said he told the doctor he had “pain on and off but was still able to go to work and the gym.”
“When I get out of the bathroom and push on my side sometimes I feel a little bit of pain in my shoulder blades,” he said.
Maw told the Mail that he had retired from competition after more than a decade participating in strongman events.
He said he was still fit to compete in August’s Highland Games event as he was used to “working through problems”.
When his insurance company discovered that he was competing in the strongman contest, they withdrew their support.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. ‘Do I stand alone and risk going to court? Someone said they could go for the equity in their home. “That was really scary.”
Maw said he then accepted the deal to pay both legal fees to end the spiraling saga.
Asked to comment on the insurance company’s suggestion that he had been “blatantly dishonest”, he said “that’s not true”.
“My shoulder still hurts, I must have shaken it when I turned the wheel. I know how it feels, but it’s not the truth.