A man in Italy was arrested for for fraud, extortion and abuse of office for allegedly collecting the equivalent of 647,000 U.S. dollars over 15 years without ever showing up to his hospital job, according to ANSA News.
Police have dubbed 67-year-old Salvatore Scumace — a worker at the Pugliese Ciaccio hospital — the “king of absentees” for pulling off one of the most egregious cases of absentee abuse they’ve ever seen.
Authorities say Scumace used threats to ensure that he wouldn’t be docked for missing work at the local hospital, and that he later fell off his employer’s radar altogether while still collecting paychecks.
Six of his superiors have also been placed under investigation on suspicion of never taking action against him.
Investigations have shown that Scumace was put on the hospital’s books in 2005 but never came in to work.