An Italian hospital employee reportedly pulled off the biggest slow burn scam in history by skipping work for a whopping 15 years while continuing to get paid for it. BBC News reports that the unnamed man worked at the Ciaccio hospital in the southern city of Catanzaro but stopped turning up for his shifts all the way back in 2005 but was never fired and continued receiving full wages until recently. The man is now under investigation by police.
- The employee received a TON of money. Over the past 15 years of absenteeism, it’s believed the man had received €538,000 ($649,452) in wages even though he didn’t work a single day. He never bothered to formally quit or set the record straight, which is why he’s now being investigated for fraud, extortion, and abuse of office.
- Hospital management is also under investigation. According to Italian news agency Ansa, six members of the hospital’s management team are also being investigated for possible connections to the fraud. Due to what police believe is a serious problem with fraud and absenteeism in the public sector, the employee’s scam as well as the inaction from his alleged accomplices was uncovered and they were arrested.
- The employee was believed to be a civil servant. He worked in other capacities before being assigned to a role at the hospital in 2005, at which point he decided not to show up anymore but to continue getting paid. Police have also reportedly accused him of threatening a female manager to stop her from filing a disciplinary report against him. It was after she retired that the person who took her position never realized the employee was perpetually absent.
- The man could spend time behind bars if convicted. The details surrounding the case at the moment are quite sparse, particularly as the investigation is ongoing, but something tells me that if convicted, the employee and those who helped him could spend quite a bit of time in prison.
