Boost for Euro injury claims
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• British truckers who are mugged on the Continent may now be able to claim compensation — thanks to a retired accountant called Ian Cowan.
Under a new EC procedure, member countries with a criminal injuries compensation scheme must come to the financial aid of all victims from EC states. In the past some EC governments have tried to reserve compensation for their own citizens — as Cowan, from Goring, W Sussex, discovered to his cost in 1986. He was attacked and robbed on the Paris Metro by a gang of youths and left with severe back injuries.
When the French government refused his claim for compensation because he was a nonnational, he took the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. After a two-year battle he has won £7,000.