Case No. HT-11-503

65.As Mr Thomas, the defendant’s expert quantity surveyor, properly accepted in cross-examination, the mere fact that the invoices were inadequate does not automatically mean that the sums claimed in them are exaggerated or overstated. But the inadequacies of so many of the invoices must now be seen against the experts’ agreement that numerous of them were irrecoverable because they did not relate to remedial works properly undertaken as a result of the second inundation. Time and again, following the investigative work carried out by Mr Thomas, invoices which were accepted by Mr Greig in the insurance claim, and originally accepted by Mr Woodall, Brit Inns’ expert quantity surveyor, were shown to relate to completely separate matters and were thus irrecoverable. 66.In section 2 of his report, Mr Thomas identifies invoices which, in his words, show “items that have succeeded in getting past the above level of scrutiny [the insurers and Mr Woodall] to find their way into the claim.” These include invoices for works which were not undertaken at The Oak at all; works which formed no part of the basement; works which were carried out before the first, let alone the second, inundation; works which were carried out after The Oak was up and running again as a business; items of claim for which no documentation was provided; items which were plainly betterment; invoices for works which were not complete at the time of the second inundation; invoices for work that was caused by the first and not the second inundation; items that were not building related; items included in the claim which Mr Greig said he had adjusted; duplications; and invoices which lacked sufficient detail. It is these legitimate complaints, raised by Mr Thomas and now accepted by Mr Woodall, which have led to a reduction of at least £100,000 from the amount originally paid out to Brit Inns.67.It is worth taking two examples of invoices which remain the subject of Brit Inns’ pleaded claim in these actions but which were plainly irrecoverable. It is, in part, necessary to do this in order to demonstrate the sheer amount of investigative work that Mr Thomas has had to do in order to demonstrate the irrecoverability of so much of this claim.68.The first is an invoice dated 23 March 2007 from Aston Cord Limited, who appear to be plumbers. The invoice is made out to Brit Inns Limited at the address at 172 High Street, Teddington. The work done was the supply and installation of a new fan and air vents. The cost was £575.75. Mr Thomas queried this invoice because there was no gas boiler in the basement. Mr Penny’s witness statement supported the claim by saying that this was provided to aid the drying out of the basement following the second flood. Mr Thomas therefore telephoned Aston Cord, as set out in his expert’s report, and was told that their records made plain that this work was undertaken on a gas boiler at Mr Barber’s houseboat at Taggs Island, Hampton. Despite this, in Mr Barber’s third witness statement, this invoice was expressly supported as part of the claim against the defendants. Mr Barber said that this work related to a temporary extractor ventilator system for the basement. It was only when Mr Barber came to give oral evidence that he finally accepted that this item should never have been claimed, let alone paid out by the insurers.69.Two important matters therefore flow from this evidence. First, this item of claim was not made inadvertently: it was not only included in the original claim itself, but it was expressly the subject of written evidence (which turned out to be wholly untrue) within the signed statements of both Mr Barber and Mr Penny. That obviously raises questions as to the seriousness with which either man took the declaration of truth at the end of their statement, and the credibility of their evidence generally. Secondly, it must be noted that the truth had to be discovered by Mr Thomas, and only then by actually telephoning Aston Cord to find out what it was that they had done. On the face of the invoice, there was nothing to indicate that this work had been carried out anywhere other than The Oak. There was no mention of the houseboat at all. The explanation for this appeared to be, from Mr Barber’s cross-examination, that he had deliberately put this down as a business expense in order to claim the VAT on it. 70.The second example is similar. Reflex-Rol provided an invoice to Mr Barber at The Oak for the manufacture and supply of insulating materials in the sum of £2,514.50. It appears that, at Mr Barber’s instruction, the invoice was headed “Ref: The Oak”. Again it appears that this was for material for window coverings for Mr Barber’s houseboat and was, as he accepted, nothing to do with the business of The Oak. Again, Mr Barber accepted that he wanted to put these through as a business expense so that he could claim the VAT. 71.Accordingly, for the reasons which I have given, these invoices, and the numerous other invoices like them, make only too clear the wholly unreliable nature of the original claim by Brit Inns to their insurers and the equally unreliable nature of Mr Greig’s adjustment, because it included so many items which, on analysis, the experts have agreed were irrecoverable. More worryingly, the attempt to support these claims in the witness statements of Mr Barber and Mr Penny, by way of material that was simply untrue, casts a major doubt on the general credibility of both men.