Man 'put fingers on train line for insurance pay-out'

A MAN put his hands under a train so his fingers would be severed and he could collect an insurance pay-out, prosecutors in Austria have alleged.

The 35-year-old from the town of St Johann, whose name was not released in line with Austrian privacy laws, is being tried on federal charges of insurance fraud stemming from claims filed in November 2003.

The suspect, a former false fingernail designer, told police he was riding his bicycle when he lost control and rolled down an embankment on to rail tracks just as a train was passing. He lost a thumb on one hand and an index finger and a pinky on the other.

Investigators were suspicious when they found the man took out a 700,000 insurance policy a few months earlier.

State attorney Elvira Gonschorowski-Zehentner said prosecutors believed the man cut off his own fingers in an attempt to cash in.

But the man's lawyer, Karl Wampl, dismissed as outlandish the idea that he would intentionally have mutilated himself in that way, arguing he could have used a power saw rather than risk death.

If convicted, he may face ten years' jail.