UNCOMMON FRAUD

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17170, 30 March 1927, Page 5

UNCOMMON FRAUD

'(Aujjtraliaa sad N.Z. Prtsa Aisocistioa.)

i MAN MANGLES HIMSELF OBTAIN INSURANCE

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j Received Tuesday, 8 p.m. , LONDON, March 29. ; -The "Daily Mail's"" Yienna correspondent reports a remarkable case j in which Emil Marek, engineep. and inventor, who was carried into Court on a strecher, is charged with fraud and slander. H;s wife and wife's sfster are similarly charged, while a hospital attendant, Mrtrz, and his wife, ai:e cliaj^ed with slander. The accusation is that Marek, after insuring himself for I £80,000 against disablement with an Anglo-Danubian Lloyd Company; deliberately hacked off his leg witfc an axe>, and! the others are charged with assisting in cai^ying througb the fraud. The evidence disclosed that Mareks screamed while working a model on the terrac of his handsome villa hear Vienna, where he was found with his leg almost severed at the knee. The Company's contention is either that Marek hacked his leg himself or someone assisted him, consequently the Company refused payment. Marek produced Marez andl his wife to say that two surgeons wilfully slashed his amputated leg to give it the appearance that it had been struck with an axe. Marz subsequently confessed that Marek had promised him £300 to give false evidence about tbe manipulation of the amputated leg which is missing. The casa is unfinished.