To continuously repeat the tests and medical visits for free, in the belief that he was suffering from a serious illness, he admitted himself to various Italian hospitals by providing false names.
But the 55-year-old originally from Veneto ended up in trouble, with a complaint for impersonation.
The last hospitalization was in Caltagirone. Accusing non-existent symptoms, he was admitted to the Neurology department of the Gravina hospital, under a false identity. As chance would have it, an employee of the Cannizzaro hospital in Catania, who also works in Caltagirone, recognized him: he had presented himself at the emergency room in October last year and in that case too he had managed to access admission to Neurology.
Once discovered, the 55-year-old hypochondriac fled but was identified by the police in Borgo Ognina in Catania, and the officers reconstructed the entire route with various stops in Grosseto, Chieti, Venice, Cremona and Parma.
For the Catania Police Headquarters, the continuous hospitalizations under a false name would have been determined «by the circumstance that the man, harboring excessive concern about his health, in order to carry out more clinical tests at no cost and at the same time obtain more medical advice, went on a monthly basis in the hospitals of the most disparate municipalities in Italy, registering each time under a false name". The crime of impersonation carries a penalty of one year in prison if convicted.
(Unioneonline/ss)