Two Spanish men chopped off their own HANDS in £2million insurance scams - but get found out because they did it too well

The unnamed men both thought they could pocket up to £2million



Among a wave of desperados going to extreme measures since recession hit

First claimant removed his hand and said it had been torn off in a car crash

The second cut it off and told insurers he had had an electric saw accident



Two Spanish scroungers who chopped off their own hands and tried to claim the insurance payout have been exposed as cheats - because they performed the amputations so well.

The unnamed men, whose cases are not linked, both thought they could pocket up to £2million if they could hoodwink insurers into believing unforeseen accidents had caused their injuries.



They are among a wave of penniless desperados in recession-ravaged Spain who are increasingly turning to more extreme measures to make ends meet.



Power fool: Incredibly, one of the men used a chainsaw to amputate his hand but told insurers it had been torn off in a car crash

Authorities said the first claimant removed his hand with an electric saw but told insurers it had been ripped off in a car accident.

He then made claims to 11 insurance companies demanding £2million in compensation.



But when medics examined his wound, it became clear that the cut was 'too clean' to have been torn in two.

José Luís Nieto, president of Gesterec, which investigates accidents, said: 'The cut was too clean between the bone for a car crash, which is never so clean.



'This man might have got someone to use a saw to cut off his hand. A surgeon would never have done it.'

Never saw it coming: In March, a man in Austria cut his own foot off with a circular saw, left, so he could stay on jobless benefits, then baked it in the oven, right, to make sure surgeons could never sew it back on. Despite his best efforts, he has since been told his disability does not rule him out of work



The second man chopped off his arm above the elbow and claimed €600,000 from insurers, saying that he had suffered an accident with an electric saw.



Both cases come amid a steep rise in the number of false insurance claims that have been revealed since Spain plunged into recession in 2008.



'The cut was too clean between the bone for a car crash... This man might have got someone to use a saw to cut off his hand. A surgeon would never have done it'



José Luís Nieto

Accident Investigator

The Investigation Co-operative of Insurance Companies (ICEA) said that there had been a 50 per cent increase in the past five years.



'There is no doubt that there has been a rise in false cases because people do not have any money in the crisis,' Mr Nieto said.



Even Spain's criminal gangs are getting a slice of the action, simulating car crashes and reaping the insurance money under false names. Investigators said they should have won Oscar, such was their web of deceit.

The revelation comes days after it emerged more than six million Spaniards are now out of work, raising the jobless rate to 27.2 per cent - the highest since records began in the 1970s.



The huge sums poured into the global financial system by major central banks have eased bond market pressure on Spain, but the cuts Madrid has made in spending to regain investors' confidence have left it deep in recession.



Employment office: The unnamed men are among a slew of cash-strapped desperados in recession-ravaged Spain who are turning to increasingly extreme measures as jobless figures soar

Crisis: Six million Spaniards are now out of work as unemployment hits 27.2 per cent - the highest on record

Unemployment - 6.2 million in the first quarter - has been rising for seven quarters and the latest numbers will fuel a growing debate on whether to ease off on the budget austerity which has dominated Europe's response to the debt crisis.

The collapse of a property boom driven by cheap credit has seen millions in the construction sector laid off since 2009 and private service sector, worth almost half gross domestic product, has followed as Spaniards tightened purse strings and investment plummeted.

Last month an unemployed man in Austria cut off his own foot with a mitre saw then baked it in the oven to make sure surgeons could never sew it back on - just so he could stay on jobless benefits.

Long term unemployed Hans Url, 56, of Mitterlabill, southern Austria, had just been informed his hand-outs would stop if he did not accept work found for him by job centre staff.