The scammers were nearly successful except that they did the damage too neatly and cleanly.
Two men in Spain who were hoping to collect up to $3.1 million in insurance fraud, cut off their own hands in order to be able to make an dismemberment claim, but were caught because their amputations were performed too well.
Unfortunately, this type of instance of insurance fraud is growing in the country, as Spain continues to be ravaged by its recession and its people becoming increasingly desperate to obtain the money they need. The lengths to which many of these individuals are going to try to obtain payout money are becoming increasingly extreme.
The first case of insurance fraud involved a man who used an electric saw but said he had been in a car wreck.
The insurance fraud case showed that the man said that his hand was torn off in an auto accident, but he had, in fact, used an electric saw. He proceeded to make claims with 11 different insurers, for over $3 million in compensation for the dismemberment. However, when his wounds were examined by doctors, they said that it was obvious to them that the cut had been “too clean” to have been torn off in a car accident.
According to Gesterec president, José Luís Nieto, whose company performs investigations into accidents “The cut was too clean between the bone for a car crash, which is never so clean.” Nieto went on to say that “This man might have got someone to use a saw to cut off his hand. A surgeon would never have done it.”
The second case of insurance fraud occurred when a man cut off his hand and arm above the elbow. He was seeking around $780,000 through the claims that he made, saying that the limb was removed in an electric saw accident.
Both of these instances of insurance fraud have come at a time in which the number of false claims has been skyrocketing in Spain, a trend which accelerated greatly when Spain entered into a deep recession in 2008.
