ONGOING care costs for a severely injured man have come under scrutiny during the third week of a Royal Court civil case.

Manny Helmot, 39 (pictured), was struck by a car while cycling one evening in November 1998.

His guardians, his mother, Rose Helmot, and Ken Jordan, are making an £18m. personal injury claim on behalf of the former Guernsey Commonwealth Games cyclist. The defendant has valued the claim at £5.3m.

For the plaintiff, UK nursing consultancy director and care needs and cost expert Maggie Sargent said it was an ‘extraordinarily difficult’ case. She spoke of the need for a case manager and said Mrs Helmot was still the first point of call for her son’s care.

‘Rose and Ken are still firefighting and one of the problems is that more than one person has been managing Manny’s care,’ she said.

For the defendants – driver Dylan Simon*, insurance company Tradex and their reinsurers – Advocate Andrew Ayres asked Mrs Sargent if she thought it reasonable that £15,000 had been paid in car hire and taxi fares in the three years to January.

She said it was a high cost, but if carers who could not drive were employed from the UK they needed some way of getting around.

Because of Mr Helmot’s special needs, carers were brought from the UK. The sum included their petrol money getting to and from UK airports, parking fees and travel costs while they were here.

*Dylan Simon, who has been named as one of the defendants, has not been party to the defence case.