Man cuts his own foot for a nearly Rs 3 crore insurance pay out. THIS tiny detail exposed his fraud

A bizarre insurance fraud from 2019 that happened in Brazil is going viral after the man was found guilty recently. The man, a clerk at a university, tried to get 15,01,709 Brazilian Real, or Rs 2 crore 80 lakh in insurance after chopping off his own foot. He took out several policies, and weeks later was found with his foot missing on the side of the road. He applied for the money, but the officers sensed something was not right. What gave away the fraud was how cleanly his foot had been amputated.

Vanderley dos Santos Gomes brewed a scheme to get a lot of money quickly to add to his low income. He worked as an admin assistant at the Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia. Gomes took out large insurance policies between June and July 2019, as part of which he would receive a payout of up to 15,01,709 Brazilian Real if he became permanently disabled. Weeks later, he was found on the side of the road with his foot missing. He told the police that he was kidnapped by gangsters who robbed him and hacked off his foot with a machete.

The severed body part was found in a backpack, and they also recovered his other belongings that Gomez had reported stolen. He was taken to the hospital, where he quickly submitted insurance claims. According to court documents, the attack happened on August 15, 2019, and the claims were filed just days later.

Suspicion around insurance claim

The supposed attack happened just weeks after he took out the policies, and he also did not waste any time in filing the claims despite being in the hospital with a severed foot. This made officials suspicious, who questioned Gomez, but he denied faking it. His lawyers argued there was no evidence to prove he had staged the entire thing.

A clean cut exposed Gomez

However, forensic experts proved to be his bane, who said his cut on the leg was too clean and precise to have been made by a machete. They said it was made using specialist surgical techniques. Court documents show that Gomez was sentenced to two years in prison, but this was later changed to 720 hours of community service and a fine of 7,600 Brazilian Real. His attempts to appeal the decision were turned down by the court and he started serving his sentence in May.