Stunt-driver gave shows in Malta, while seeking injury claim

31 year-old Billy Nolan had his claim thrown out of Dublin's High Court after it heard and seen evidence of him participating in 'car drifting', an extreme motor sport, after claiming he was so badly hurt he had to give up his job.

In his submissions for the claim, Nolan said that it was impossible for him to continue working as an alarm-fitter because it involved lifting weights, climbing ladders and working in confined spaces.

According to the Daily Mail, Billy Nolan, a father of two, had come sixth in the Irish Series for the high-risk motor sport, and told doctors he was forced to give up the hobby he loved after the November 2005 incident.

But it transpired that he took his hobby to Malta, Budapest, Holland, Madrid, Belfast and Vienna over 18-months, mainly during 2009 and 2010.

The sport, which involves driving by over-steering in a sideways position, was popularised in the Fast and the Furious movies.

In video clips on his Bebo social networking site, Nolan was also filmed throwing another man over a chip shop counter.

Dismissing his claim, a High Court judge warned Nolan that it is a "very serious criminal offence to knowingly give false evidence under oath".

In the 2005 incident - the subject of his claim - Nolan was riding a motorbike on the Kileeshin to Castlecomer Road in Carlow (Ireland) when a collision occurred between his vehicle and a taxi. He sued the driver, Danny Mitchell, citing various physical injuries including fractures to his neck and foot, and lacerations to his left hand. He spent three months in a wheelchair.

He lodged the court claim in 2007. He had hoped to recover €600,000 for loss of earnings - a claim found to be 'deliberately exaggerated'.

Lawyers for the taxi driver claimed Nolan drove at 'excessive speed' and on the wrong side of the road. However, the judge ultimately accepted Nolan's evidence.

His case fell apart after the defence team produced videos of his high-speed activities.

One, uploaded in October 2007 - less than two years after the accident - was labelled 'Billy Nolan doing a burnout'.

Judge Esmond Smyth said if were it not for his 'false and misleading' evidence, he would have awarded Nolan €192,000.

"This evidence was clearly untruthful and the reasonable inference that I draw from it, as a matter of probability, is that he gave misleading evidence, which he knew to be misleading in a material respect," the Judge said.