Ex British-Ghanaian soldier who sued UK ministry ordered to pay back £70,000 for telling lies

A former British-Ghanaian soldier, Lance Corporal Michael Mantey, has been ordered by a British Court to repay £70,000 for telling lies about his health.

According to investigators, this was after he was caught on camera walking without health aids.

The ex-soldier took a £ 1.6 million legal action against the UK Ministry of Defense after sustaining a foot injury while on deployment in Estonia.

The court presided over Judge Mr Justice Eyre, said the claims by Mantey had been fundamentally dishonest, a report by the Daily Mail said.

Mantey, who joined the British Army in 2019, stated that the injury caused him to lose his initial mobility.

Subsequently, he had to put on the multiple layers of outerwear to visit his doctors.

But the judge said that Mantey misled the ministry despite initially presenting genuine examination.

“He chose to report symptoms which he knew were false and from which he was not suffering. He did so in the context of a substantial damages claim.

“The MoD says that there was deliberate malingering whereas Mr Mantey says that his presentation at the examination was genuine, with the greater activity shown in the surveillance footage being atypical,” the judgment said.

The judge further said that such a conduct was dishonest.

"The only possible explanation is that he did so deliberately and to enhance the value of the claim.

“I find on the balance of probabilities that Mr Mantey suffered a minor NCFI, from which he had fully recovered at some point before September 2021.

"He dishonestly portrayed himself as having suffered a more serious injury which had a continuing and disabling effect, doing so for financial gain.

"That dishonesty tainted the whole of the claim. It went to the heart of the claim; it substantially affected the presentation of the case as a whole; and led to a significant inflation in the claim’s value," he added.

However, Mantey 39, at the time he provided his witness statement, stated that he had indeed experienced mobility issues but later responded positively to treatment, resulting in an improvement in his health.

"If only someone could see what I go through every day, then this story could be re-written," he said.

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