Jail sentence for bodybuilder who sued NHS over ‘botched surgery’

A WYE Valley bodybuilder who demanded £580,000 compensation for a “botched” operation and subsequently posted videos of himself playing rugby and lifting weights has been sentenced to eight months in prison for attempted fraud against the NHS.

Sean Murphy, a construction worker from Ross-on-Wye, was found to be fundamentally dishonest about his injuries when he tried to claim compensation from Wye Valley NHS Trust in 2022. There is also footage showing him exercising a dumbbell to the 80s hit. Karma Chameleon.

And now he has been sentenced to prison for contempt of court in the High Court in London.

Murphy, now 39, said in his 2021 claim that he was disabled as a result of a failed biceps tendon operation he sustained while playing rugby for Ross RFC in March 2017.

He stated that the surgery had reduced his grip strength and that he now had to rely on the help of others as he was unable to dress himself or lift anything heavier than an empty kettle.

His compensation claims against the NHS included being banned from playing rugby, returning to work as a construction worker and no longer working out at the gym.

Wye Valley NHS Trust had admitted that the operation on 31 March 2017 had not been carried out to an acceptable standard and that Murphy had suffered an injury as a result.

The Trust apologized for this failure and made provisional payments for Murphy's damages and costs at the time.

However, Murphy's exaggeration was later exposed when someone called the NHS fraud hotline.

The informant stated that Murphy was shown in press articles in November 2017 – eight months after his surgery – playing rugby for Ross 2nds and that he had posted videos of himself lifting weights and working out.

Wye Valley Trust took legal action and at a hearing in 2022, Deputy High Court Judge Mr Healy-Pratt found that the evidence of the plaintiff playing rugby, lifting weights and working out was “clear and incriminating”.

He added that his claims that he could not do any of these things were “completely false.”

The judge concluded that if the claim had been made honestly it would have been worth no more than 0.85 per cent – £4,250 – of the total amount, and concluded that the actual damages claim made was “fraudulent in proportion”.

He dismissed the claim on the grounds of fundamental dishonesty and ordered Murphy to repay interim payments of £40,000 and legal costs of £10,000.