Mitsui faces £15m payout to toddler injured in motor crash

Mitsui could pay out as much as £15m as it was the insurer for a food tycoon’s son who crashed his Land Rover head on into a family car injuring a toddler.

Mitsui apologised yesterday to the toddler’s family and agreed to pay out £5m in a lump sum and £450,000 each year for the rest of six-year-old Cerys Edwards’s life. Mistui has already paid out £4m.

Richard Langton, solicitor for Cerys’s family, said: “Overall, depending on how long she lives - and that’s completely uncertain, nobody knows, it could be 20 years, it could be 30 years - the total amount of compensation paid is likely to be in the region of £10m to £15m.”

Antonio Boparan, who was doing more than 70mph in a 30mph area, was jailed for 21 months but released under curfew conditions after serving six months. Cerys, who was a one year old at the time of the crash, has needed 24-hour care following the crash in 2006.

Boporan is the son of Ranjit Boporan, who last year succeeded in a £341m buyout of Northern Foods.

Following the payout at Birmingham’s High Court yesterday, Mitsui said in a statement: “Mr Boparan’s liability for the accident that caused Cerys’s injuries had been admitted in 2008.

“We would like to express our profound sympathy for the catastrophic injuries suffered by Cerys and for the suffering of her parents.”

Mitsui is likely to have offset some of the costs through reinsurance, although it is not yet clear who will pick up the tab. Reinsurers are concerned about the growing sums of money needed for periodic payment orders (PPO) in motor accidents.

There is anecdotal evidence that reinsurers have scaled back motor capacity at the annual January renewals because of concerns over PPOs. A rise in reinsurance costs could impact the primary motor market, which may then need to raise premiums with their policyholders.