A HEREFORDSHIRE bodybuilder who claimed that a botched operation left him disabled has been jailed after he was caught out by pictures and videos of him lifting weights and playing rugby.

Sean Murphy, 39, of Ross-on-Wye, underwent surgery after tearing a bicep tendon while playing rugby in 2017. But he claimed the operation had left him unable to play rugby, work as a builder or dress himself as a result of damage to his elbow and sued the Wye Valley NHS Trust for £580,000.

However, his claim was dismissed in 2022 after pictures and videos of him back on the rugby pitch and lifting weights surfaced on Facebook, including one of him curling a barbell to '80s hit Karma Chameleon and more of him playing rugby for Ross-on-Wye's second team. 

Pictures from 2020 showed Murphy was exaggerating his injuries

Now, Murphy has been jailed for eight months for contempt of court at the High Court in London and faces £200,000 in court fees that must be paid back to the NHS's costs of the original case.

He will also have to repay £40,000 in interim damages that he received prior to the discovery.

The NHS did say that Murphy was entitled to some damages, however, his claim of £580,000 was a "gross exaggeration" of his symptoms.

Judge James Healy-Pratt determined in the 2022 trial that the claim was worth just £5,000 and suggested that the £580,000 bid was "fundamentally dishonest".

But just last week, the case was taken back to court for contempt of court.

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The Telegraph reported that Mr Justice Mould said, pointing out that the bid came around at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, "A more egregious act of selfish deceit is hard to contemplate."

Giving judgement, he said Murphy had made a "sustained and deliberate series of false statements and lies" in order to exaggerate the effects of his injury to a "massive degree".

He said the videos proved "beyond reasonable belief" that he was experiencing "no significant weakness" in his arm.

"I am satisfied that he deliberately lied to each expert," the judge added, saying "the shortest period of imprisonment I am able to impose is eight months".