It would have been a report from social services two years ago that triggered the investigation against the 84-year-old pensioner from Ciriè, in the Turin area, who received disability allowance as he was partially and then totally blind.
Except that, as the Carabinieri investigations found, the man used to carry out ATM operations in total autonomy, read funeral posters posted on the walls near his home and walk calmly through the streets of the city, clearly perceiving the obstacles that presented themselves in front of him. .
A blind fake, in short, according to the investigators, so much so that, once the first phase of the investigation was concluded, the man was reported for aggravated fraud.
The police followed him for several months, certifying some actions that a blind person, alone, would never have been able to complete.
According to what was discovered by the military personnel, the subsidy was granted to him in 1990, when the man was certified as severely visually impaired for the first time.
A difficult condition which, over the years, according to the medical records, has gradually worsened until reaching total blindness, certified in 2020. Now the investigations, coordinated by the public prosecutor of the Ivrea prosecutor's office, Daniele Piergianni, are called to shed light on all the steps of this complicated story.
And for this reason, the two medical specialists who ascertained the worsening of the pensioner's health conditions and who, for the moment, have also been registered in the register of suspects have already ended up in trouble.
The suspicion, however, is that the network of compliant people was even wider.
For this reason the investigations did not stop at the pensioner's complaint.
The Ivrea court, in fact, ordered the preventive seizure of the 84-year-old's assets: a current account with around 90 thousand euros deposited and an apartment on the outskirts of Ciriè.
The proceeding could soon lead to the confiscation of the assets with a view to possible compensation: the man, in fact, could be called upon to repay the entire sum, not yet quantified, received in these 34 years for what the investigators have ascertained to be a fake disability.
It just so happens that in Ciriè, a few years ago, another 83-year-old pensioner was discovered by the financial police driving a three-wheeler despite the fact that INPS claimed he was blind.
In that case the man had to answer for fraud against the State for having unduly received over 100 thousand euros.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA