AVI FITS MONEY LUST.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1926, Page 1

AVI FITS MONEY LUST.

VIENNA, October 19. Ferdinand Marek, :> young engineer and inventor, aged 22, will be charged here early this month with wilfully chopping off his right foot with an axe, after insuring himself against accident and disablement for nearly £40,000. The Anglo-Danubian Lloyd in Vienna which effected the insurance, is contesting the claim. , March was working on the terrace of his villa at Moedling, near Vienna, on a Sunday morning, shaping a model with a sharp curved axe, when his screams brought his wife and others to find him with his left foot hanging only by the skin. He nearly died, and spent several months in hospital.. A police investigation was made, as a result of which he was formally charged with trying to defraud the insurance company, and his claim against them will only be dealt with in the civil court after the criminal charge has been dealt with. The police statement is that Marek was determined to find money to satisfy the ambition of his wife, at whatever cost to himself, that he made false statements to the company about his age and profession, and that his conduct throughout and the general cifi- > cumstances indicate that he then risked t| death from, the shock of self-mutilation.