‘complete mess’ | 

Con woman who sued for toilet fall sees €60k compo claim go down the drain

Her civil case came just two weeks after Merriman was sentenced in a criminal court for fraud offences.

Today at 18:46

A CONWOMAN, who received an 18-month suspended sentence for a €9,500 fraud earlier this month, saw her €60,000 personal injury claim for fall in a toilet go down the drain after a judge called her case “a complete mess”.

Convicted fraudster Celina Merriman (45) from Ballyshannon Road, Kilmore, Dublin, had taken a civil case after claiming said she sustained serious injuries to her shoulder when she fell after smashing a toilet seat she climbed onto while carrying out cleaning work in a nuns’ house in Dublin five years ago.

However, Judge Terrence O’Sullivan described the case as a “complete mess” at Dublin Circuit Court this week before dismissing it to the annoyance of Merriman who arrived at court on crutches due to injuries sustained in an unrelated subsequent accident.

The judge noted there was a serious lack of medical evidence provided by the plaintiff in the case while the court also heard that Merriman had not disclosed relevant injuries to a doctor for the defence.

The case was eventually dismissed when it transpired that the accident took place a full week after Merriman claimed it had occurred.

Judge O’Sullivan said he had to dismiss it as there was no evidence the accident occurred on the date she claimed it had occurred.

Her civil case came just two weeks after Merriman was sentenced in a criminal court for fraud offences.

She received an 18 month suspended sentence at Dublin District Court on October 6th after she was convicted of defrauding a woman out of €9,500.

The victim had sent Merriman the money by bank transfer in March to pay for a digger/excavator which Merriman had advertised online. However, Merriman never had an excavator to sell and instead pocketed the cash.

She was given another suspended sentence in May after being convicted of unlawful possession of a Browning firing pistol on January 18, 2021. The weapon was a blank firing pistol said she kept for protection.

The court heard she “felt under threat” after a motorcycle she minded at a former address was stolen, and the owner became angry and wanted €8,500.

Merriman was hoping her money problems would soon be behind her when she took the stand seeking up to €60,000 at Dublin Circuit Civil Court on Friday.

Merriman told the court she was working as a housekeeper for nuns attached to the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul in Kilmore Dublin 5 in June 2018 when she suffered serious injuries to her back, shoulder and knee after falling through a toilet while cleaning a window in a bathroom.

She said while her knee and back injuries are no longer an issue, she still had ongoing problems with her shoulder injury.

She said she had been working for the nuns for two years before the accident and prepared meals and did general housework such as hoovering at the residence.

She claimed she was asked to clean a window in an upstairs bathroom where the accident took place.

“it wasn’t included in my general housework but I did it because I didn’t want to be difficult.”

She said she stood up on the pipe at the back of the toilet and then kneeled on the toilet seat which broke into smithereens and caused her to fall and injure herself.

“I put my left foot on the pipe and held onto the bars. I got wedged between the toilet cistern and the wall, how embarrassing. I was stuck for 20 minutes. I was stunned.”

She said after the 20 minutes she left the toilet and met a nun who asked was she alright and told her to get a cup of tea before she was told to go home.

She said she was a bit stiff and sore after the incident and went to her GP two days later who referred her to Beaumont Hospital for an MRI and an X-ray.

The defence claimed she was never asked to clean the window but instead asked to use a long-handled multi-coloured duster to dust security bars around the window.

Judge O’Sullivan noted that the way Merriman went about doing the job didn’t seem safe to him

“By looking at it, I don’t think it was safe. If I did that and fell, I’d say ‘god amn’t I an awful eejit?’”

The court heard that a Belfast-based Dr Rahul Gupta who is not licenced to practice in this jurisdiction, had been hired by the plaintiff to prepare medical reports for the case.

Defence Barrister Shane English said: “He practices medicine in Northern Ireland. He is not entitled to practice as a doctor in this jurisdiction He is a swearing doctor who sees patients in batches He will not make himself available to be cross examined.”

Judge O’Sullivan said: “I am aware of issues around him [Dr Gupta]. I will ignore anything [from him].”

The court heard there was little else medical evidence to back up Merriman’s claims and there were no doctors in court to give evidence.

The court also heard she had gone to a doctor in 2017, the year before the accident, complaining of pain in the exact same part of her shoulder she claimed was hurting her now due to the accident.

Asked why she hadn’t told a doctor hired by the defence about this previous injury, she said: ”I didn’t realise I had to keep repeating myself from doctor to doctor.”

She said if she did so she would be like parrot.

Judge O’Sullivan said there was zero medical evidence available to the court to prove Merriman’s case.

“This is just a mess…a complete mess,” he said.

The case was eventually dismissed when it emerged that Merriman had sued on the basis the accident took place on June 4th 2018 but admitted under cross examination it took place on June 11th.

Judge O’Sullivan dismissed the case on the basis there was no evidence the accident occurred on the date she claimed it had occurred.

The defence said they would not seek an order for costs against Merriman if she agrees not to appeal against the decision to dismiss the case.