Italian Uses Fake Arm In Bid To Get Vaccine Pass Without Getting Jabbed

Nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man -- in his 50s -- was reported to local police.

An Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm, an official said Friday.

Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man -- in his 50s -- was reported to local police following the incident on Thursday night in Biella, northwest Italy.

"The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity," the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement on Facebook.

He said such an act was "unacceptable faced with the sacrifice that our entire community has paid during the pandemic, in terms of human lives, the social and economic cost."