Wedding picture exposes bodybuilder’s alleged £25k bogus compo claim as insurers probe whether he FAKED car crash with friend

A CHAMPION bodybuilder suspected of a £25k car insurance scam was rumbled by a photo from his wedding day.

Richard King claimed he had never met fellow suspect Patrick Allen before - but the pair are pictured together at the Gulf War veteran's marriage ceremony.

King and Allen had maintained they were strangers who had a car crash in August 2014 in Carnoustie, Scotland.

Allen had filed a claim for injuries and damage to his car against King and his insurer Direct Line.

The firm's investigators found pics of the pair together at King’s wedding four months before the alleged accident, a court heard.

During the hearing Facebook pictures were presented showing them wearing kilts on the Gulf War veteran’s wedding day.

Following a hearing at Forfar Sheriff Court, Sheriff Pino Di Emidio said he thought the two men may had lied about the accident.

He threw out the compensation claim before asking prosecutors to investigate.

An expert crash investigator, who examined the damage to King's Nissan and Allen's Honda, said he was convinced they had not been in an accident.

Direct Line's lawyer John Thomson said King and Allen, a roofer from Dundee, had told "out and out lies".

Giving his ruling in the case, Sheriff Di Emidio said: "There is no technical evidence that I was willing to accept that would allow me to conclude that it has been proved on the balance of probabilities that the Honda and the Nissan cars were actually in a collision with one another on 18 August 2014.

"The pursuer’s evidence was very problematic in a number of respects.

“Initially he denied even knowing the defender. He claimed that he had only attended the wedding along with his partner who knew the bride.

"Eventually he came to accept that two of the posted photographs showed him at the defender’s wedding only some four months prior to date of the ‘accident’.

"He was one of a group of male guests dressed in formal traditional Scottish clothing."

The Sheriff continued: "One Facebook photograph showed the pursuer and other men dressed in kilts and each wearing a black shirt and white tie of similar style.

“He denied being a close associate of the defender but they were sufficiently well known to each other for him to have participated in the male guest outfit colour co-ordination scheme for the defender’s wedding.”

The Sheriff also said Allen was “vague in the extreme” in his recollections of the crash and described him as “visibly perspiring” as his evidence was challenged.

After losing the case, Allen was also ordered to pay Direct Line's legal expenses.

King, from Carnoustie, works as a personal trainer and has won several bodybuilding competitions.

A spokesman for the Crown Office confirmed they had received a copy of the sheriff's judgement and instructed police to investigate.

Earlier this month it was reported that a Tinder conman stole someone's identity and fleeced them out of thousands of pounds.

An accountant has been jailed for 32 months for plundering £150,000 from her celeb clients.

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