Bogus blind man in Italy caught

A 70-year-old Italian man who had been pretending to be blind for 40 years to get an invalid's pension has been arrested after a car check.

The 'particularly nervous' man was stopped during a routine road check in the northern Italian city of Spezia and could not provide a driving licence, city police said.

'Then we checked his medical record and were amazed to find that he was registered as 100% blind,' the police said.

The man had been claiming an invalid's pension and other benefits from his former employers for 40 years.