Man jailed for lopping off fingers in insurance scam

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-22 08:56

A man was sentenced to five years jail plus a 20,000-yuan ($2,940) fine on Thursday after cutting off two of his fingers in a foiled attempt to defraud 450,000 yuan from two insurance firms in Shanghai.

Huang Linhua, 48, a local businessman, claimed he accidentally cut his fingers off on Oct 19 last year while preparing a duck for a soup.

Huang had taken out two insurance policies a month beforehand and afterwards sought a total claim of 448,500 yuan from both firms.

But his plan went awry when the insurance companies doubted his account of the accident and asked police to investigate.

They found the parallel wounds on his fingers were unlikely to have been sustained while cutting up a duck.

They also found Huang owed his bank about the same amount as his claims.

The Jing'an District People's Court said it administered a lenient sentence because Huang had already lost two fingers.

(Jiefang Daily)