Top 10 bizarre compensation claims

A teacher was paid out for getting their foot caught in a football net, in one of several bizarre claims Credit: Nigel French/PA Archive/Press Association Images

A triple murderer has been awarded £815 for damage to possessions taken from him when he was imprisoned, claiming he had been "stressed" by the loss of "priceless possessions" including photographs and a carton of fruit juice.

But it's not the only bizarre compensation claim to have been granted in court, as these examples show:

  • A teacher was paid £230,000 compensation after slipping in ketchup on the way to the staff room at her school in 2011

  • A single mum was awarded £8,000 because she was duped into thinking she had won a Renault Clio in a radio show competition in 2001, but instead she was presented with a 4-inch model and was later awarded the full price of a new full-sized version

  • A council worker in Greater Manchester received £4,000 after slipping on a banana and falling over

  • A gravedigger was awarded £65,000 compensation after falling into a plot he had dug and hurting his knee

  • A teacher received £83,000 from South Gloucestershire Council after tripping over a football net

A teacher was paid out for getting their foot caught in a football net, in one of several bizarre claims Credit: Nigel French/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Insurance company Aviva dug out these examples from its archive, going back as far as 1886:

  • A merchant from Essex injured his eye while throwing rice at a wedding – paid £50 in 1892, modern equivalent £2,994

  • A merchant from Glasgow was injured while jumping out of bed to catch his wife who had fainted – £42 was paid in 1895, equivalent to £2,575 today

In a claim during the 1800s, a merchant from Essex injured his eye while throwing rice at a wedding Credit: Fourmy Mario/ABACA/Press Association Images
  • A travelling salesman from Belfast hit his head on a pole while watching an accident from the top of a tram – he was paid £7 in 1904, which is worth £401 now

  • A shipbuilder from Great Yarmouth swallowed a fish bone – £1,000 was paid out in 1900, equivalent to £57,000

  • An artist from Swansea blown down by gale of wind and was awarded £30 paid in 1886, or £1,796 today

Read: Murderer awarded £815 for broken nose clippers