Self Mutilating Woman Jailed for Insurance Fraud

The court in Slovenia was told by police that they discovered the fraud after the woman was rushed to hospital with a ‘life-changing’ injury.

A district court in Ljubljana, Slovenia, sentenced the 22-year-old to two years in prison for deliberately cutting off her hand with a circular saw to make a fraudulent insurance claim.

The court heard that Slovenian, Julija Adlesic, had agreed with her boyfriend to have her left hand severed above the wrist at their home in the capital early in 2019. She was found guilty of attempted insurance fraud. A year earlier, Adlesic had signed contracts with five different insurance companies, the court heard. The woman stood to collect more than 1 million euros, about half paid immediately and the rest in regular monthly instalments. Video credit of her court appearance to Vitomir Petroic.

Julija Adlešič bo do pravnomočnosti lahko na prostosti. Sodnica ji je odpravila hišni pripor. pic.twitter.com/EqOY48zLkM

— Vitomir Petrović (@VitomirPetrovic) September 11, 2020

Her boyfriend was sentenced to three years in prison while his father received a one-year suspended sentence. The pair had ‘rushed’ her to the hospital, saying she had injured herself while sawing branches. When asked by doctors whether they had bought the hand with them they said they left the severed hand behind. Under questioning, it was revealed the plan was to leave the hand behind rather than bringing it to the hospital to ensure the disability was permanent. However, police went to the scene of the ‘accident’  and recovered the hand where it was later reattached by a ‘micro-surgery’ procedure.

Prosecutors said that days before the incident, Adlesic’s partner searched for information on the internet about how artificial hands work. Police forensics discovered this information from the boyfriend’s laptop. They claimed that this was even more proof that it was done deliberately.

During the trial, the woman dramatically claimed her innocence, saying she would never have cut off her hand deliberately. “No one wants to be crippled,” she told the court. “My youth has been destroyed. I lost my hand at the age of 20. Only I know how it happened.”

The trial has attracted lots of public and media attention in the small Alpine state. “We believe the sentences are fair and appropriate and will serve their purpose,” judge Marjeta Dvornik said.

If you enjoyed reading this story then you might like to read this: Police arrest six over multi-million euro social security fraud in Malaga.