A model was filmed strutting around in fantasy body paint after demanding £3m as she falsely claimed an NHS blunder had left her in a wheelchair.
Kae Burnell-Chambers, 44, insisted she struggled to walk, get out of a car and dress herself because of nerve damage caused by delayed diagnosis of her condition.
But social media videos from the Kustom Culture Blast Off festival painted a different picture as they showed Ms Burnell-Chambers was in fact mobile to the extent she could parade around as a fantasy warrior along with other body paint models.
The video was filmed months before Ms Burnell-Chambers launched her multimillion-pound damages bid over delayed diagnosis of her cauda equina syndrome – a condition involving damage to nerves at the end of the spinal cord.
Whilst the condition was genuine, the model admitted exaggerating her symptoms in light of the footage showing no signs of her having difficulty getting around.
Ms Burnell-Chambers now faces a potential jail sentence after Judge Jonathan Glasson KC found her guilty of contempt of court, as she admitted she had ‘misrepresented’ her symptoms during her claim.
Cauda equina syndrome is a condition that occurs when the bundle of nerves below the end of the spinal cord, known as the cauda equina, is damaged.
Signs and symptoms include low back pain, numbness and pain that radiates down the leg, but early diagnosis and treatment can lead to long term effects being much reduced.
Social media videos from the Kustom Culture Blast Off festival revealed a different story as they showed Ms Burnell-Chambers (pictured) was in fact mobile
The model insisted she struggled to walk, get out of a car and dress herself because of nerve damage. Picture shows bodypainting artist and model Kae Burnell Chambers (3rd from left)
Model Kae Burnell Chambers is seen in video footage during a medico legal visit where she ‘displayed a laboured gait and used a stick’
Sadie Crapper, barrister for Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust, told the court that after NHS doctors missed early signs of the condition in 2016, Ms Burnell-Chambers, from Lincolnshire, a fine art graduate specialising in body painting, launched a bid for damages in 2019.
Ms Burnell-Chambers was said to have attended medico-legal appointments where she complained of ‘a whole array of disabilities’, and said she needed help to dress and to get out of the car.
The barrister explained that when she went to see a doctor she had ‘displayed a laboured gait and used a stick’.
However, Ms Burnell-Chambers went on to drop her claim in 2022 after social media videos and surveillance footage showed the picture of her disabilities she had been presenting to support her claim was ‘fundamentally dishonest’.
Ms Crapper said: ‘[Ms Burnell-Chambers] contended that she was significantly disabled by reason of the consequences of the delayed diagnosis of a second episode of cauda equina that she, for example, walked only with a stick and to a maximum of 100 yards…and in consequence thereof required significant levels of care, aids and equipment, including mobility scooter and wheelchair, boot hoist and Motability vehicle, single level accommodation etc.’
The barrister added that ‘following disclosure of surveillance evidence and social media material in the clinical negligence claim, she served a notice of discontinuance’.
Ms Burnell-Chambers went on to drop her claim in 2022 after social media videos and surveillance footage showed the picture of her disabilities she had been presenting to support her claim was ‘fundamentally dishonest’
One of the videos was filmed the same morning Ms Burnell-Chambers saw the medico-legal expert displaying high levels of disability, though the film showed her ‘at a petrol station with her mum walking with no problem’.
A major element of the NHS case was based on a series of social media videos showing Ms Burnell-Chambers working as a bodypaint artist and model at a series of conventions and festivals around the UK.
One particular video from the Kustom Kulture Blast Off in August 2019 ‘shows her having her body extensively painted and then parading in a show where she walks freely and dances without need for a walking aid’, the barrister said.
Ms Crapper added: ‘By no later than 2017, she had recovered well enough to make a return to body painting.
‘What you see in these videos is somebody who goes to conventions around the country.
‘She’s seen to walk without a mobility aid, crouch and converse about the work she’s doing freely and without any sign of pain.
‘The person seen on the videos is markedly different from the person seen in the medico legal documents and her witness statement.
‘She has at all times known she participated in these conventions, undertook this painting and modelling, and could walk as she did on the footage now available.’
The barrister said: ‘What you see in these videos is somebody who goes to conventions around the country’
The court heard Ms Burnell-Chambers admitted her condition varies and her mobility is almost normal on good days, and that she had been exaggerating when she saw the medico legal expert doctor
Ms Crapper explained it was the NHS Trust’s case that Ms Burnell-Chambers had ‘fraudulently exaggerated her symptoms for the purposes of her clinical negligence claim’.
She said: ‘[Ms Burnell-Chambers] now admits that she is in contempt of court and accepts that the custody threshold has been crossed in respect of her wrongdoing.’
The court heard Ms Burnell-Chambers admitted her condition varies and her mobility is almost normal on good days, and that she had been exaggerating when she saw the medico legal expert doctor.
‘She admitted she had been fundamentally dishonest,” but nevertheless has real ‘ongoing disabilities’, her barrister Ben Bradley KC told the court.
The judge, giving his ruling, said she had signed an admission that she had ‘deceived’ the examining doctors ‘and deliberately changed my presentation’ and that in doing so had ‘deliberately interfered with the administration of justice’.
In her admission statement, she said her mobility is near normal ‘on good days’ but ‘on bad days’ she considers herself to be disabled.
On seeing some experts on the claim, she deliberately attempted to demonstrate what she perceived her function was at its worst, without telling the experts that was what she was doing, it was heard.
‘I know it was wrong to misrepresent my presentation whilst making a civil claim. I accept that I deserve to be punished as a result,’ she added.
At the end of a half-day hearing, the judge concluded: ‘I find the defendant guilty of contempt of court on the basis of her admissions.’
He went on to grant permission for contempt proceedings to be discontinued against Ms Burnell-Chambers’ mother, Lynne Clifford, on the basis of a statement she made supporting her daughter’s claim.
Ms Burnell-Chambers will now return to court to be sentenced in October. The maximum term for contempt of court is two years’ imprisonment.
