Music

Allegedly injured insurance scammer caught rocking out in Guns 'N Roses cover band

by Richard Howard

So you know how in comedy films someone fakes whiplash from a car accident and walks around for months with a neck brace to sell it? Somebody should have shown one of those to former British rail worker Anthony James Dermody. In 2011, Dermody was involved in an accident at work, crushing his thumb. His employers Network Rail admitted liability, and Dermody went on to claim £300,000 on the basis the injury had debilitated him. With Network Rail admitting fault, the case was pretty much open and close. Unfortunately for Dermody, he seemingly missed the ‘pretty much’ part. Instead of sitting pretty on over $500k Canadian, he’s now facing jail time after being busted touring as a bass player in a Guns ‘N Roses cover band.

So here’s a shock – corporations and their insurance companies don’t want to pay you half a million dollars, and are going to look for ways to avoid doing so. Often, people making legitimate claims have to deal with ridiculous arguments and tons of litigation to get their money. Dermody made it easy for his former employers, though. I’ll let Network Rail’s lawyer William Featherby QC (most British-y lawyer name ever) explain:

“This is a claimant who said he suffered a very serious injury to his right thumb – which incidentally is his guitar playing thumb. For many years afterwards, and still, he plays bass guitar in a very energetic heavy metal band, known as Guns or Roses.’ [He said he was] ‘very seriously disabled’ and ‘could not do any of the activities he enjoyed before the accident.’ We say that is false, because he was playing guitar for this group… the claim was largely fraudulent… he was an active and busy member of a heavy metal rock group.”

Yup, in the time since his injury, Dermody has been touring the UK and Europe as the bassist of Guns or Roses, which touts itself as ‘UK’s greatest tribute to G’N’R.’ Good news for the band: with nearly 57,000 Facebook fans and a busy schedule, this may well be true. Bad news for Dermody: it was real easy for investigators to capture footage of him rocking out doing his best Duff McKagan, making expert use of his supposedly useless right thumb.

He quickly dropped the claim after realising he was under investigation, but it was too little too late. Dermody and a co-defendant could now be jailed for up to two years for contempt of court. The co-defendant in question? His mommy. It turns out she gave a witness statement in support of his claim, but, according to Featherby, “she is on Guns or Roses’ website as one of his biggest fans, so she knew all about his activities.” The attorney added that Dermody and his mother are expected to defend themselves, where the bootleg Duff will claim “he has developed a new technique for paying the guitar which places no strain on his thumb.”

Was it all worth it? Check out the sweet pic below and you tell me, bro.

[h/t Daily Mail]