Artist misled NHS about disability when seeking £3m payout
Kae Burnell-Chambers claimed she needed a stick to walk even a few paces but surveillance video and social media posts showed her strolling unaided, dancing and taking part in body painting competitions, the High Court was told.
Burnell-Chambers, 44, claimed mistakes by the NHS in 2016 meant she required significant levels of care and equipment including a mobility scooter and wheelchair, Motability vehicle, and single-level accommodation.
However, investigations showed Burnell-Chambers had taken part in five bodypainting competitions in 2018. At the Coventry Comic Con in September 2018 she was recorded painting her model and being interviewed on camera about her work.
The following year she took part in seven conventions, including the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria. At the Kustom Kulture Blast Off in Lincolnshire, she was shown having her body extensively painted and then parading in a show and dancing.
Sadie Crapper, representing the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, told the court on Friday that Burnell-Chambers had 'fraudulently exaggerated her symptoms for the purposes of her clinical negligence claim'.
Her performances at the bodypainting competitions were said to be 'in stark contrast' to her filmed meetings with medical experts during which she struggled to walk a few paces.
An undercover investigator filmed Burnell-Chambers walking unaided on the same day in 2021 that she told a consultant neurosurgeon she was severely disabled.
Burnell-Chambers, who has a master's degree in fine art from the University of Lincoln, admitted contempt of court over her witness statement and her presentation to experts in her claim for clinical negligence.
She admitted her mobility was near normal 'on good days' and claimed that when she had seen some experts she had deliberately attempted to demonstrate what she perceived her function was 'at its worst', the court was told.
Burnell-Chambers, from Grimsby, has a history of lower back pain and had decompression surgery in 2014. Two years later she visited the accident and emergency department of the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, complaining of numbness in her right leg and back pain.
After an MRI scan she had decompression surgery on her lower spine at the Hull Royal Infirmary.
Burnell-Chambers later complained of weakness and pain in her legs and disability which she blamed on negligent delay in diagnosis and treatment. She made a legal claim for compensation in 2019.
The NHS trust has applied for Burnell-Chambers to be committed to jail when she appears at court in October.
A spokesman for NHS Resolution, which handles compensation claims, said: 'We remain committed to ensuring fair compensation for patients who have suffered harm due to NHS care. However, this case serves as a clear reminder of the serious consequences faced by those who pursue dishonest or exaggerated claims against the NHS.'
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