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Hewison v Meridian Shipping PTE & others [2002] EWCA Civ 1821 the Court of Appeal held, by a majority, that a Claimant who had lied about his epilepsy to obtain employment as a crane operator on an oil rig was not entitled to any loss of earnings arising out of genuine and serious injury to his back consequent upon the negligence of his
employers. Clarke LJ held:- “The principle can perhaps be stated as a variation of the maxim so that it reads ex turpi causa non oritur
damnum, where the damnum is the loss which would have been recovered but for the relevant illegal or immoral act.” In applying the law Clarke LJ held the test to be:-“If a plaintiff comes to court and asserts as part of her case that she would have committed criminal acts and bases her claim on such an assertion she cannot recover in a court of law on that basis.”