A TV psychic to the stars has been slammed as ‘dishonest’ by a judge and hit with a £100,000 court bill after lying about losing his powers in a car crash compensation bid.
Celebrity clairvoyant Maurice Amdur, who predicted Daniel Craig would be James Bond and starred in ‘Maurice’s Psychic World’ on Sky TV, damaged his head and spine when his Jaguar was struck from behind at Marble Arch roundabout in January 2015.
Mr Amdur, 56, told Central London County Court he provides ‘psychic readings to the rich and famous around the world’.
He said the prang had a catastrophic effect on his life and his work as a clairvoyant – stripping him of the vital concentration needed to ‘read’ for clients.
He brought a £250,000 damages bid against the insurers for the motorist who hit him, Ilya Krylov, also claiming crash injuries made him impotent and cost him his relationship with his then girlfriend.
But Judge Elizabeth Backhouse, whilst accepting Mr Amdur was injured in the crash, threw out his claim and handed him a £100,000 legal bill after finding he made a ‘fundamentally dishonest…untrue statement’ that he couldn’t work as a psychic reader for two years after his accident.
Maurice Amdur (pictured) alleged he became impotent, temporarily lost the use of his arms and was transformed into a hermit by a crash but a judge determined he had been dishonest
The court heard the celebrity psychic was on his way home from collecting a brand new £80,000 Jaguar XKS convertible – one of only 14 in the world – when he was rear shunted by Mr Krylov.
After the accident he claimed he was racked by pain and reduced to living like a hermit, unable to socialise or work properly.
He also told the court he lost his girlfriend because of the accident, explaining: ‘It didn’t work out because I wasn’t well.
‘I became impotent, I had performance anxiety because I couldn’t use my arms.’
Mr Amdur, of St John’s Wood, London, who also appeared in the Channel Four show ‘Four Rooms’ in which antique dealers compete against each other, says he has ‘read for royalty, heads of state and movie stars’, and told the court he began to recognise his strange powers from the age of just four.
‘I don’t know why I’m a reader, it’s weird and freaky,’ he told the judge.
Mr Amdur pictured outside the Mayor’s and City of London Court. He has clocked up multiple TV and radio appearances in both England and the US, and was on ITV’s This Morning in 2009
On top of his clairvoyant skills, Mr Amdur works as a ‘face reader’ – detecting a person’s strengths and weaknesses by examining their features.
He spent time living and working on the west coast of the United States and says he has ‘read the faces’ of a cluster of A-list stars including Naomi Campbell, Al Pacino and Barbara Streisand.
He clocked up multiple TV and radio appearances in both England and the US, and appeared on ITV’s This Morning in 2009 when he ‘read’ the faces of interior designer and TV personality, Linda Barker, as well as foretelling the future for the show’s then presenters, Philip Schofield and Fern Britton.
The insurers’ lawyers accepted Mr Amdur suffered soft tissue injuries to his neck and spine, but disputed his claims that the crash also caused major damage to both his shoulders, and lasting chest pain.
They also denied claims that his symptoms lingered on for over two years, suggesting they had cleared up within a year.
A key issue in the case was whether Mr Amdur’s crash injuries stalled his psychic reading work for two years – as he insisted.
Mr Amdur when he ‘read’ the faces of interior designer and TV personality, Linda Barker, as well as foretelling the future for This Morning’s then presenters, Phil Schofield and Fern Britton
In evidence, Mr Amdur told the court he couldn’t get back to work as a psychic until March or April 2017 ‘as he felt he did not have the mental sharpness and ability to concentrate sufficiently to do a good job’.
The judge accepted the crash had caused the clairvoyant acute pain in his neck and back, as well as headaches and a numb right arm.
But she found Mr Amdur made an ‘untrue statement’ in declaring that he couldn’t work as a psychic reader for two years after his accident, and had in fact done readings during that time.
Sketching out his case, Judge Backhouse explained: ‘His case is that he was in such severe pain from the injuries sustained in the accident that he was not able to work offering psychic readings for two years after it, as he could not concentrate properly.
‘He said that he ‘just lay on his couch’ and did not go out except for treatment in the first few months.
‘I am prepared to accept that Mr Amdur does believe that he has a ‘gift’ and that he considers that he behaves with integrity when working as a clairvoyant, unlike others in the field who are ‘charlatans’ as he called them.
‘It does seem to be the case that Mr Amdur has had the TV exposure he claims and he appears to have enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle, judging by his assets.
‘He considers that he was on the cusp of a major upturn in his career as he had a number of opportunities for TV work at the time of the accident and in the months after it but he was not well enough to take those up.
‘I am prepared to accept that he may not have felt well enough to do as many as usual or to work to normal capacity, but I am satisfied that he did some readings,’ she said.
‘Clearly he must have known that he did that work and I find that in this respect he has been dishonest.
‘I am also satisfied that this is fundamental dishonesty in that the dishonesty went to a substantial part of the claim,’ added the judge.
‘For the reasons I have already given I have found that this was an untrue statement and that Mr Amdur was able to, and did do some psychic readings following the accident’.
The psychic – who the judge said ‘strenuously denies all allegations of dishonesty’ – would have been awarded £10,454 for his crash injuries, but his entire claim was dismissed as a ‘punitive’ step because it was undermined by ‘fundamental dishonesty’.
On top of defeat in court, Mr Amdur must now pick up the costs of the trial, which lawyers in the case said are likely to run beyond £100,000.
