Lorry Driver Sues Specsavers For £200,000 After Failed Eye Test Left Him ‘Depressed’

A lorry driver is suing Specsavers for more than £200,000 following a failed eye test that he claims left him so ‘depressed’ that he may never be able to work ahain.

Francis Hodibert, 62, from Slough, Berkshire, failed a mandatory HGV drivers eye test at his local branch of the opticians in 2022.

However, his license was returned six months later after he passed another test with a consultant ophthalmologist. Shouldn’t have gone to Specsavers?

Hodibert is now convinced that he failed the original test due to mistakes made by Specsavers staff, and has put in a claim for more than £200,000, claiming the ordeal severely impacted his mental health and left him with anxiety.

Setting out his case, Mr Hodibert’s barrister Michael O’Neill wrote: ‘The defendant is engaged in the provision of professional optical services to the public and in particular of visual field testing, as required by the DVLA for the assessment of fitness to drive heavy goods vehicles.

‘On 10th April 2022 and on 21st May 2022, the claimant attended at the defendant’s Slough branch to undergo visual field testing for the maintenance of his HGV licence.

‘Following such testing, the defendant reported superior field defects, as a consequence of which the claimant’s licence was revoked by the DVLA in September 2022.

‘The said results were inaccurate and, following separate tests carried out by a consultant ophthalmologist on 25 January 2023, the claimant was able to appeal the revocation of his licence and the same was reinstated following the provision of a new eyesight certificate on 31 March 2023.

‘The obtaining and reporting of the said inaccurate results and the consequent revocation of the claimant’s HGV licence were caused by the negligence of the defendant, its servants or agents.’

He added that Hodibert had been examined by a doctor and diagnosed with depression, and has the medical records to back this up.

‘His condition is such that he is unable to work as an HGV driver or at all and his personal and domestic life has been substantially disrupted’ It is uncertain that he will ever make a sufficient recovery to work again.’

Now obviously it’s unacceptable if Specsavers botched the test and mistakenly failed Hodibert, but £200,000 in compensation? Seems like he’s pushing it a little bit.

He’s got a right to be angry, but it doesn’t sound like he was too proactive either. Rather than crying about it for six months, why didn’t he immediately get a second test, a clean bill of health, and then just ask Specsavers for a refund or realistic compensation before numbers like £200k start getting bandied around?

Then again, what reason would he have had to doubt the eye test coming back as a fail? Specsavers have a good reputation, after all. Maybe his eyes got better in six months? Or maybe the staff as Specsavers really did just massively f*** up that day.

Specsavers has indicated it will fight Mr Hodibert’s case.

For the man who temporarily went blind after crying non-stop for seven days in order to break Guinness World Record, click HERE.