Artist who sued NHS for £3m disability compensation caught dancing
Kae Burnell-Chambers, 44, claimed that delayed diagnosis by NHS doctors had led to nerve damage which left her struggling to walk, get out of a car or even dress herself.
But a video unveiled at the High Court instead showed the artist posing and strutting whilst painted as a fantasy warrior at a festival in 2019.
The video was filmed months before she launched her multimillion pound damages bid over delayed diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome, a condition involving damage to nerves at the end of the spinal cord.
She is now facing a potential jail sentence after Judge Jonathan Glasson KC found her guilty of contempt of court as Ms Burnell-Chambers admitted she had 'misrepresented' her symptoms during the claim.
Sadie Crapper, barrister for Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust, told the court that after NHS doctors missed early signs of the condition in 2016, Ms Burnell-Chambers, from Lincs launched a bid for damages in 2019.
She attended medico-legal appointments complaining of 'a whole array of disabilities,' saying she needed help to dress and to get out of the car - and when she went to see a doctor had 'displayed a laboured gait and used a stick,' the barrister said.
However, she went on to drop her claim in 2022 after social media videos and surveillance footage showed that the picture of her disabilities she had been presenting to support her claim was 'fundamentally dishonest,' said Ms Crapper.
The barrister said Ms Burnell-Chambers said she was 'significantly disabled' by the delayed diagnosis and could walk 'only with a stick' and required aids such as a 'wheelchair, boot hoist and Motability vehicle'.
A core part of the NHS case was based on a series of social media videos that showed her moving 'without any sign of pain'.
One particular video from the Kustom Kulture Blast Off in August 2019 'shows her having her body extensively painted and then parading in a show where she walks freely and dances without need for a walking aid,' the barrister said.
Ms Crapper said that Ms Burnell-Chambers had 'fraudulently exaggerated her symptoms for the purposes of her clinical negligence claim.'
The court heard Ms Burnell-Chambers admitted that her condition varies and her mobility is almost normal on good days, and that she had been exaggerating when she saw the medico legal expert doctor.
'She admitted she had been fundamentally dishonest,' but nevertheless has real 'ongoing disabilities,' her barrister Ben Bradley KC told the court.
The judge, giving his ruling, said she had signed an admission that she had 'deceived' the examining doctors 'and deliberately changed my presentation' and that in doing so had 'deliberately interfered with the administration of justice'.
In her admission statement, she said her mobility is near normal 'on good days,' but 'on bad days' she considers herself to be disabled.
'I know it was wrong to misrepresent my presentation whilst making a civil claim. I accept that I deserve to be punished as a result,' she added.
At the end of a half-day hearing, the judge concluded: 'I find the defendant guilty of contempt of court on the basis of her admissions.'
Ms Burnell-Chambers will now return to court to be sentenced in October. The maximum term for contempt of court is two years' imprisonment.
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