Posted on February 20, 2008 by Fiona Hilliard

A 70-year old Italian man who had hoodwinked the government into thinking he was blind has been arrested after a random car check.

The ‘particularly anxious man’ could not provide police with a driving licence when he found himself stopped during a routine road check in the northern Italian city of Spezia.

Police said: “Then we checked his medical record and we were amazed to find that he was 100% blind.”

The man had been claiming an invalid’s pension from his former employers for the last 40 years.