Italian man pretended to be his dead mother in order to claim her pension
An Italian man is under investigation for allegedly committing benefit fraud and hiding a dead body after dressing up as his deceased mother to claim her pension.
The man is from Borgo Virgilio, which is situated close to the northern Italian city of Mantua. The unnamed man was caught mimicking her hairstyle with a wig, as well as her countenance via makeup and jewellery.
The 56-year-old fell under scrutiny earlier this month after he disguised himself as his mother to renew the expired ID card at the local council office.
Commenting on the bizarre matter, Francesco Aporti, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, shared with Corriere della Sera, that the man had attended the appointment dressed as “an old woman”.
The mayor also added, “He wore lipstick, nail polish, jewellery and old-fashioned earrings, and had a dark brown bob of hair,” he said. This echoes his mother’s likeness, but she had previously passed away in 2022.
The perpetrator even tried his hand at emulating his dead mother’s voice. The Mayor shared that despite imitating a female voice, “occasionally a few masculine notes slipped out.”
The council staff member soon realised something was awry. They noted, as per the mayor, that the man’s neck “was a bit too thick and even the wrinkles were strange [and] the skin on his hands did not seem to be that of an 85-year-old woman.”
The man is an unemployed nurse who was able to quit his work thanks to the incoming cash from his mother’s pension and three properties. These income streams gave him an annual income of €53,000 (£46,500).
This has become a strange phenomenon in Italy over the past few years. In 2023, a man in Verona attempted the same, managing to keep the dead body from prying eyes for half a decade.
The same year, a man in Puglia had managed to hide his father’s body for an entire decade in order to claim his benefits.