A sales assistant (29) with thousands of followers on TikTok and YouTube has denied defrauding the Department of Social Welfare out of large sums of money.
A €60,000 damages claim by Sean McMillan, of Cromcastle Park, Kilmore West, Coolock, Dublin, for personal injuries against three defendants was thrown out by Judge Cormac Quinn in the Circuit Civil Court.
The judge said he had “heard enough” during cross-examination of Mr McMillan’s evidence about a fall on a bus.
The court was told by Gerard O’Herlihy, on behalf of Dublin Bus, that Mr McMillan had received €35,000 of social welfare since falling from a seat on a bus at Fairview in January 2016.
Mr McMillan denied a suggestion by Mr O’Herlihy that he had defrauded the Department of Social Welfare by claiming disability benefit when clear evidence from his own online dance videos revealed he had not been disabled in any way.
He said he had not lied to his doctors, the defendants’ doctors or the court.
Barrister Frank Martin, for Suttle Landscapes, whose driver, Deirdre Fairbrother, had allegedly caused the bus to brake suddenly, told Mr McMillan he appeared like “Mr Wobbly” on the bus following an incident in which CCTV showed no other passenger had been thrown from their seat.
Mr Martin put it to Mr McMillan that his own GP thought he was a chancer and had given him no treatment in relation to his alleged back injuries.
The court had been shown Mr McMillan dancing and doing squats and flips in videos he had put up on his social media accounts, including his dance routine to Shaggy’s song It Wasn’t Me on YouTube.
Judge Quinn said he had heard and seen enough and dismissed Mr McMillan’s case.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/tiktok-users-60000-injury-claim-thrown-out-after-court-sees-video-of-him-dancing-to-it-wasnt-me-41082459.html