Woman found guilty of sawing off own hand for pay-out

A woman went to all new (or less?) lengths to try to make a fraudulent insurance claim, by allowing her boyfriend to sever off her own left hand with a circular saw, a Slovenian court has ruled.

Julia Adlesic, 22, had taken out five insurance policies, which would have paid out more than €1m (£926,000) if accepted. Half would have been paid as a lump sum and the rest in monthly instalments, reports suggested.

The district court decided that she had agreed with her boyfriend to have her hand sawed off at their home in early 2019, before he and his father took her to hospital claiming she had injured herself while cutting branches.

Authorities argued that they left the severed hand behind rather than bringing it to hospital to increase the chance of permanent disability, however police recovered the stray hand and it was reattached.

Adlesic was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday, her boyfriend received three years and his father was given a one-year suspended sentence.

During the trial, she denied deliberately cutting off her own hand. She told the court: "No one wants to be crippled. My youth has been destroyed. I lost my hand at the age of 20. Only I know how it happened."

According to prosecutors, however, days before the incident Adlesic's boyfriend searched online to find out how artificial hands work. Proof that it was intentional, they claimed.  

The judge said: "We believe the sentences are fair and appropriate, and will serve their purpose," The Independent reported.

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• Topics
• Protection
• hand
• Julija Adlesic
• fraud
• insurance
• Claim
• Slovenia
• saw