Brazil has been left shocked after a man had his own foot amputated to fake being the victim of a robbery so he could get a huge insurance payout. Vanderley dos Santos Gomes had been working as an admin assistant at the Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, and had taken out four expensive insurance policies between June and July 2019, deemed unaffordable for his salary, a court heard.
The combined insurance policies he took out would have put him in line for R$1.5 million (£220,050) if he ever became permanently disabled. Three weeks after getting all four of the insurance policies, he qualified as permanently disabled when he was found injured in a rural area near the village of Merces, in São Goncalo dos Campos, without his right foot. Gomes claimed he’d been the victim of a violent kidnapping and robbery, during which his attackers had hacked off his right foot with a machete.
The belongings he’d reported stolen were later found in a backpack along with his severed foot, LADBible reported.
Taken to the hospital for surgery and medical treatment, on August 15 – a few days after the alleged attack took place – Gomezs made his compensation claims to the various insurance companies. However, the move raised doubt among investigators, considering the short period between the four expensive policies being taken out and the robbery he claimed to have suffered.
Police became suspicious that Gomes, despite losing his right foot, was committing fraud by trying to get his insurance pay-outs. The man denied planning a fake robbery where his foot had been amputated, and his legal representatives argued he should be acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
However, forensic experts said the amputation was too clean and precise to have been hacked off by a machete. Instead, they argued it would have been done with surgical tools in a manner not at all how the man described.
Ultimately, in light of forensic reports, insurance records, medical evidence and witness testimony, Gomes was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud.
His sentence was converted into 720 hours of community service and a fine of R$7,590 (£1,113). Gomes began serving the sentence in May this year after all his appeals had been exhausted.
