Fake crash claim jail terms halved
Fake crash-compensation claims cost a bridegroom and his parents £73,000 each in court costs, and all three were jailed for a year.
Andrew Singh, 26, his father Graham, 53, and mother Niramella, 50, had lied about suffering whiplash injuries in a coach crash - as did 25 of the wedding guests.
After the accident in 2006, Andrew Singh was filmed dancing energetically, and the video was shown at the resulting civil case which the three, all of Old Trafford, lost.
But the Court of Appeal in London has now quashed the jail sentences later imposed by magistrates for conspiracy to defraud and perjury, and substituted six months in each case.
Mr Justice Eady said: "These were serious offences. There was dishonest manipulation of the courts, persisted into to a late stage - significant costs were wasted and valuable court time."
But although the sentences could not be criticised, he said, the three had suffered considerably and had lost their reputations in their tight-knit community. The parents had also suffered poor health.