TikTok star slams fraud allegations after failed claim against Dublin Bus saw him go viral

Tiktok dancer Sean McMillan told the Sunday World he 'felt like crying' on the stand when he was accused by Dublin Bus's legal team of defrauding the social welfare out of €35,000 in disability payments.

On Monday, Dublin Circuit Civil Court dismissed McMillan's claim for damages, arising from a fall on a bus when it came to a sudden halt, after videos were shown of him engaging in energetic online dance routines.

The videos shown to court, and now available to watch on sundayworld.com, showed the Tiktok star dancing and doing squats as well as engaging in a dance routine to Shaggy's song It Wasn't Me.

In a subsequent interview with this newspaper, Coolock native McMillan denied the fraud allegation, saying he had been put on disability arising from mental health problems and not because of the incident on the bus.

"I was put on the disability over mental health problems," he told us, "not from the back injury. And, also, I did not fall in the bus.

"Everyone in the courtroom saw [from the CCTV] I was thrown forward as the bus jammed on."

During Monday's proceedings, barrister Frank Martin, for Suttle Landscapes, whose driver, Deirdre Fairbrother, had allegedly caused the bus to brake suddenly, told Mr McMillan he appeared like "Mr Wobbly" following an incident in which CCTV showed no other passenger had been thrown from their seat.

Mr Martin also put it to Mr McMillan that his own GP thought he was a 'chancer' and had given him no treatment in relation to his alleged back injuries.

"That hurt very much," McMillan told the Sunday World. "Especially when it's not true! I stood in that box, on my own, full of anxiety. But I am not going to let them make me out that I defrauded the system.

"At one stage I felt like crying. To be called something like that when the footage clearly [shows] the truth of what happened!

"I was sitting on the very top of the bus.

"In 2016, there was no way you could hold on to anything. I got thrown forward and fell off my seat. Now they have things on top in all buses ([to grab onto].

"I wish I could have not wasted my day in hospital. But it happened so suddenly, it was a shock. And then they made me out to be the worst person in the world."

McMillan also took issue with claims he had been seeking damages to the maximum allowed in the Circuit Court of €60,000.

"It's funny, it was my first time to hear of €60,000. Never once was it €60,000."

Asked how he had been able to perform the dance moves in the videos if he had suffered a back injury, McMillan said the pain was not constant and that he had been prescribed strong pain killers.

"It was not serious back pain where I could not work," he said.

"There were times [when] I was not myself with aches and pains of course. As [with] anyone with back pain, it comes and goes.

"And then when [I was] put on the medication there was no pain I could get on with daily life. But on the medication, I was not myself."

Asked specifically about the dance video recorded to Shaggy's It Wasn't Me song, McMillan said: "That was put up the end of 2017 when I was on strong pain relief."

Since the court case, McMillan said he has been the target of online abuse.

"I'm strong, thank God!" he said.

"I can take it … sure most of them are all fake profiles. Trolls as they're called … My followers know who I am."

Dismissing McMillan's claim after being shown the videos and hearing him being cross-examined, Judge Cormac Quinn said he had heard and seen enough and dismissed the case.

The judge also ordered that McMillan pay the legal costs of Dublin Bus; Suttle Landscapes, Clontarf, Dublin, and of Deirdre Fairbrother, Estuary Road, Malahide, Co Dublin, the driver of Suttle's vehicle that had allegedly caused the bus to brake suddenly.

None of the three defendants had to call any direct evidence to challenge Mr McMillan's claims before his claims were dismissed by the court.

Asked if he could afford to pay the costs arising from the case, or whether he is considering appealing, McMillan said he hadn't considered this as of yet.

"I'm not too sure about all that at the moment," he said.