TIMES are hard, as Swift Half knows only too well, and any way of making a bit of extra cash on the side is worth a look.
But even we think a woman who wheeled her DEAD ‘uncle’ into a bank pretending he was still alive in a chilling bid to get a loan in his name has taken it too far.
The desperate fraudster, named as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, was captured on video talking to the pallid corpse while trying to hold his floppy head up straight in the wheelchair.
Video from Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo showed her attempting to get him to somehow countersign documents so she could get the £2,500 payout in Rio.
As she tries to get him to hold a pen, she can be heard saying: “Uncle, are you listening? You have to sign it. I can’t sign for you.
“Sign here and stop giving me a headache.”
Staff, as you’d hope, grew suspicious about the man’s lack of enthusiasm to help his hard-up niece, who must be a fan of Hollywood classic Weekend at Bernie’s.
“I don’t think this is legal. He doesn’t look well. He’s very pale,” one of the more observant employees is heard saying.
Playing it cool, Nunes replies: “He is like that. He doesn’t say anything. Uncle, do you want to go to the [hospital] again?”
Cops were quickly called and arrested Nunes before it was confirmed the man, named as 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga, had been dead for several hours prior to his visit to the bank.
Police Chief Fábio Luiz told TV Globo: “She tried to pretend to get him to sign the loan. He already entered the bank dead. The main thing is to continue the investigation to identify other family members, and find out more about this loan.”
Nunes could face charges of theft through fraud, or embezzlement, and most chilligly, abuse of corpse, the New York Post reported.