A woman who cut off her own hand with a saw in the hope of receiving a large insurance payout was instead given a prison sentence.
Of course, money is tight for a lot of folks currently with the ongoing cost of living crisis.
As a result, some are going to extraordinary and even illegal lengths for a bit of cash.
Julija Adlesic, from Slovenia, planned with her boyfriend to have her left hand severed above the wrist at their home in Ljubljana in 2019.
Adlesic used a circular saw to chop off her left hand, leaving the severed body part behind as she rushed to hospital.
This was all part of a calculated plan by the Slovenian woman as she ruled out any attempts by surgeons to reattach it when she was being seen by a medical professional.
Police and local officials raced to the scene of the ‘accident’ at the time and were able to recover the missing hand.
The apparent terrible ordeal was not an ‘accident’ after the courts decided that Adlesic cut off her own hand in the hope of getting a $1.1 million insurance payout.
The court heard that she stood to collect the massive payout, half of which to be paid immediately, after signing insurance deals with five different providers the year before.
Adlesic had been in debt and was going through personal bankruptcy proceedings at the time she committed the fraud.
Days before the incident her partner, Sebastien Abramov, had looked into how artificial hands work on the internet.
Prosecutors said it was further proof the act was a deliberate one.
But during the trial, Adlesic maintained her innocence, saying she would never cut her hand off deliberately.
“No one wants to be crippled. My youth has been destroyed. I lost my hand at the age of 20. Only I know how it happened,” she said.
But she, alongside Abramov and his parents, entered guilty pleas as part of a deal with Slovenian prosecutors in 2021.
Abramov was sentenced to two years and five months imprisonment while Adlesic was initially sentenced to three years behind bars.
Judge Marjeta Dvornik said at the time: “We believe the sentences are fair and appropriate, and will serve their purpose.”
However, that sentence was halved in a second hearing, as Adlesic was freed from prison in 2022 after serving part of her 19 month sentence.
In fact, the Slovenian woman spent just a year behind bars.