An ex-soldier who is suing the MoD for £3.7million over trench foot is facing claims he faked his condition by packing his feet in ice blocks before being examined.
Brian Muyepa, 32, says he suffered severe non-freezing cold injuries after being left in wet boots for five hours after a training exercise in a Welsh tunnel in winter 2016.
But the former Royal Artillery gunner is facing 'fraud' accusations over an alleged scam involving 'putting ice packs around his feet to fool the diagnostic tests'.
MoD lawyers earlier this year admitted it breached its duty of care towards Mr Muyepa, but later accused him of 'exaggerating' his claim.
The change in approach came after video footage - which has since been deleted - allegedly showed him dancing at a barbecue on social media.
They are applying to withdraw the original admission and amend their defence to accuse him of lying to 'fool' them, adding his claim was 'entirely fraudulent'.
Mr Muyepa denies all the allegations of dishonesty and exaggeration put forward by the MoD and is pressing on with his claim.
Brian Muyepa, 32, says he suffered severe non-freezing cold injuries after being left in wet boots for five hours after a training exercise in a Welsh tunnel in winter 2016
MoD barrister Andrew Ward told Judge John Kimbell QC at the High Court a new witness has come forward to testify against Mr Muyepa.
They claim he 'discussed with someone else packing ice blocks around his feet to fool the diagnostic infrared thermography tests'.
They said this came before his feet were looked at by military doctors at the Institute of Naval Medicine, in Gosport, Hampshire.
'Our case is that the claim is entirely fraudulent,' Mr Ward told the judge.
In his £3.7million compensation claim, Mr Muyepa says non-freezing cold injuries - known during the First World War as trench foot - have left him in crippling pain.
He had enlisted in the Royal Artillery as a 19-year-old gunner in 2007 and joined 40 Regiment and later 47 Regiment.
He says his injury occurred when he went on a promotion exercise in Sennybridge, Wales, in March 2016.
During the exercise, he spent time in a cold water-filled tunnel, but then had to continue for another five and a half hours afterwards in wet boots.
He was later diagnosed with non-freezing cold injury, a disabling condition which is characterised by pain in the extremities and an oversensitivity to cold.
Most commonly experienced by servicemen, it was first noted in the trenches of Europe during the First World War, resulting in being known as trench foot.
He says the pain in his extremities is there most of the time, he struggles to get up from a sitting position and has to leave his wife (pictured together) to do all the housework
