The family of a woman who sued a bus company are on trial amid accusations they helped her fake a £1.5 million compensation claim.

Thereza Daoud launched legal action against Brighton and Hove Bus Company after being hit by a double-decker.

But investigators working for the bus company’s insurers filmed her celebrating her daughter’s wedding and the High Court ruled she had exaggerated the extent of her injuries.

Now, in an extremely rare case, Mrs Daoud’s husband, Nabil Tadrous, 63, and her daughters, Sherihan Brooks, 30, and Merihan Tadrous, 28, have gone on trial accused of conspiring to falsify the extent of her disabilities.

Mrs Daoud,55, of Leighton Road, Hove, claimed £1.5 million in compensation for the injuries she suffered in the accident in Queen’s Road, Brighton, in November 2005.

When she appeared at the High Court she agreed a settlement of just £40,000 compensation but did not see a penny of it because she was ordered to pay the bus company’s £100,000 legal fees at the same time.

Barrister William Featherby QC told the High Court in London yesterday that Mrs Daoud was very much fitter than the “virtual cripple” her family held her out to be.

Videos of Mrs Daoud were filmed over a period of 26 months showing her shopping, going to the hairdressers and celebrating at the wedding.

One piece of footage, lawyers claim, showed her struggling on a walking frame towards a surgery in London’s Harley Street for a medical examination, although she had appeared ablebodied earlier in the day.

Mr Featherby described the footage as a “particularly flag rant and disgraceful sequence”.

He said she showed “no sign of disability” while window shopping and visiting a café.

But when Mrs Daoud arrived in a street around the corner from Harley Street “a walking aid was produced from the car”.

“Mrs Daoud, with the connivance of Sherihan and her husband, used it to hobble as if seriously disabled in and out of the building where the examination took place,” he said.

The family said in a statement they were “stunned” by the allegations.

Sherihan said: "Our family has not been knowingly or intentionally dishonest in any way.

This whole case has been a nightmare.”

There is no dispute that Mrs Daoud suffered a significant head injury and her daughters and husband deny contempt of court.

The case continues.