A pensioner who sued Apple for wiping his treasured honeymoon snaps from his phone has been awarded £2,000 after winning the court case.
Retired property developer Deric White, 68, said he scored a “monumental" victory for the "common man" after successfully taking on the tech giant over the blunder.
Bungling staff at Apple’s flagship store in Regent Street had wiped the whole phone without warning after he took it to the shop in December last year.
Mr White, who had just beaten cancer when it happened, was determined not to give up on his David and Goliath battle, despite having to pursue the case for nearly 12 months and being told "you can't take on Apple".
“I would not let it go,” he told the Standard.
“Having fought cancer, I was not going to get defeated by Apple.
“My wife was reduced to tears when they wiped my phone. Everyone tells me this has happened to them or their mate.
“I did this for the common man. I would say to anybody who has got a gripe with Apple – don’t let them boss you about and ignore you.”
He added: "Other people should be inspired – you can’t keep getting trod on by corporations coming at you with Ts and Cs."
Central London County Court ruled in Mr White’s favour on Monday, awarding him £1,200 compensation and nearly £800 in costs. He appeared in court without representation and argued his own case against the giant's legal team.
Mr White, who lives in Pimlico, visited the store in December last year after receiving a text saying there was a problem with the phone, and left it with staff for 20 minutes while they attempted to fix the issue.
He only realised when he got home that the photos and videos from his honeymoon in the Seychelles last autumn – after he married in summer 2014 – had vanished.
These included his “favourite” video of a tortoise biting his hand. He also lost pictures from an earlier African safari trip, all of his contact numbers, and photos of medics who cared for him when he was in hospital for 10 months fighting cancer of the oesophagus.
He said Apple remained “intransigent” over the past year and never offered any compensation.
He was initially seeking £5,000 to pay for another honeymoon and says he will put the £1,200 towards a holiday in Cornwall instead.
He added: “It’s not so much the money that I have won, but it’s the moral victory.
“Apple is just an enormous conglomerate and everyone said you can’t win this, they said you can’t take on Apple.
“It’s absolutely fabulous, it’s a monumental victory.”
Apple did not respond to requests for a comment.