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ITALY-CRIME-FRAUD-HEALTH
‘Bone-breaking’ insurance fraud gang busted in Italy
ROME, April 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Italian police on Monday dismantled two
“bone-breaking” gangs in Sicily which had been smashing victims’ limbs in
order to stage road accidents and defraud car insurance companies.
Over 40 people were arrested in Palermo after investigators discovered
hard-up victims were having their arms or legs broken in exchange for a small
part of the pay-out from insurers, police said.
Those in on the fraud included false witnesses to the accidents, doctors
providing fake medical reports, physiotherapy centres certifying care that
was never provided, and a lawyer filing the claims, police said.
The victims were “people on the margins of society… drug addicts,
alcoholics and the mentally ill”.
They were promised a cut of the insurance pay-out, but took home as little
as 300 euros ($340).
The gang broke upper or lower limbs — referred to in code as the “first
floor” and “ground floor” — by throwing cast-iron body-building weights at
their victims or beating them with iron bars, police said.
Police initially uncovered the scam in 2017 after the death of a Tunisian
who initially appeared to have died in a road accident, but was discovered
during the autopsy to have had a heart attack after a beating.
He had been given crack cocaine to minimise the pain.
Eleven people were arrested in a first operation against two other gangs
in Sicily last August, and three of them turned state witness, leading police
to investigate some 250 suspects.
– ‘Meek’ bone crusher –
Around 60 attacks were uncovered in wiretaps, with the criminals
preferring to target teenage single mothers because the payouts were bigger.
The victims were taken to isolated apartments or warehouses, and given
mild painkillers or ice packs to numb their limbs.
The arms or legs were suspended between blocks of concrete and a bag of
iron weights or large stones were thrown at them to fracture them, police
said.
Multiple fractures were better because they were subject to larger
payouts.
Five of those arrested Monday specialised in the bone breaking, according
to the Giornale di Sicilia local daily, including one dubbed “Tony the Meek”.
The head of one of the gangs drove a luxury car and owned a speedboat,
reports said.
The road “accidents” were staged in areas not covered by video
surveillance cameras. Gang members would then pose in hospital as the
victims’ relatives, to ensure they stuck to the story.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1730 hrs