Getty ImagesA former Royal Marine who is suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over hearing loss says he and others in his unit cheated hearing tests with the help of military medics so they could be deployed.
Christopher Lambie is one of about 10,000 former personnel suing the MoD over noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).
He is one of four test cases which is being heard at the High Court, with the result of those hearings impacting how much compensation others could receive. Before proceedings began one test case, retired Lt Col Andrew Davies, settled his claim for £182,250.
The MoD accepts it has a duty of care but disputes the extent to which hearing loss happened in some cases.
Mr Lambie, 45, is claiming more than £400,000 in damages, but the MoD has offered him about £58,000 with its barristers claiming his hearing loss has not and will not have an impact on his future income.
He joined the Royal Marines in 1998 and was diagnosed with NIHL in 2002 but, in a witness statement, said “nothing was put in place to prevent me from being exposed to loud noise”.
Members of his unit were put through a hearing test before deployment to Afghanistan in 2011 and Mr Lambie said he was “very conscious” about as his “entire career was spent training for deployment”.
He initially failed but said he passed a retake by watching the medic testing him “press the button for the tone and then I pressed my clicker straight away”.
“We all knew that the emphasis on the staff was to ensure that Marines passed all the tests they needed to pass for deployment, as the MoD needed as many people as possible to deploy,” he said.
He said: “This is why the medics helped us pass our medicals,” adding the medic conducting the tests was “completely aware” of this,
Mr Lambie, who is now a defence and security consultant after being discharged in 2021, said members of the unit had joked about cheating the tests to ensure they passed regardless of whether they needed to.
The MoD has accepted “primary causation” in his case, but disputes how much he should receive.
David Platt KC, for the department, said in written submissions that Mr Lambie’s “instance of faking” the hearing test in 2011 was an “undoubtedly regrettable” but was “apparently isolated instance of cheating”.
He said the amount the former marine was claiming was “wholly unrealistic” as hearing loss had not impeded his career.
Family handout/PA NewsAt a hearing in July last year, the MoD admitted that it had a duty of care to former personnel, having disputed this in earlier legal action.
It also accepted that noise exposure during service caused hearing loss among former personnel, but disputes the extent to which this happened in some individual cases.
Lt Col Davies, 58, said his pay out “does finally acknowledge what I lost and provides some justice”. In a statement he said that serving was an “honour and a privilege” but being left with a permanent injury which could have been prevented was “hard to accept”.
Another former serviceman, Stephen Hambridge settled his case for £550,000.
The trial is due to last nine weeks.
Separately thousands of military veterans are taking legal action against the MoD and an earplug manufacturer after being given ear protection they say was faulty.
An MoD spokesperson said: “To ensure value for money for the taxpayer, we are defending against a range of claims or limiting costs.
“Many of these claims are historic, and in the years since, we have substantially improved protective measures around hearing to prevent noise-related issues amongst our people.
“The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme provides no-fault compensation to Service Personnel and veterans for injuries, illness and death caused by service.”
