STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A Swedish man on disability claiming to be wheelchair-bound was given a three-year jail term after being caught dancing with a life-sized bunny, records show.
Halmstad district court sentenced the 33-year-old after police, following up a neighbor's tip, searched his house and found a picture of the man dancing with an amusement park's costumed rabbit mascot, the Swedish news agency TT reported Friday.
The court found the man's entire family guilty in the disability swindle, convicting his father, mother and sister, as well.
Sweden's Social Insurance Agency paid the man a total of 3,001,741 kronor ($400,000) in benefits between Nov. 1, 2005, and Jan. 31, 2009, which he has been ordered to repay, TT said.
The unidentified man claimed to need help turning over in bed, eating and getting from place to place. He claimed family members as personal assistant employees.
The doctor who examined him accepted the man's claims of disability although allegedly he could never find anything wrong with the fraudster.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Dance with bunny in Sweden reveals man's fraudulent disability
From UPI: