Direct Line loses £3.4m case against 'lying' victim

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Direct Line insurance has lost its three-year appeal against a critically injured man it accused of lying to secure millions in damages.

The insurance giant took extraordinary measures in an effort to prove 43-year-old Mark Noble was exaggerating his injuries, even secretly filming him. Noble, of Wareham in Dorset, was awarded £3.4m in damages at a trial in March 2008 after he sustained life threatening and grievous injuries in a motorbike accident five years previously. Even though Mr Justice Field said at the trial that Noble had been truthful about the extent of his injuries, which included fractures to his spine and pelvis, Direct Line forced Noble to defend himself at a second hearing after collecting what it cons...

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