For Every Action...

Authorities in the little town of Ferraz de Vasconselhos in the State of São Paulo became incensed when they discovered that municipal employees were signing in for each other at the beginning of their workday and signing out at the end, thereby enabling them to take other jobs when they were supposed to be working for the city.

They reacted with technology.

Biometric readers similar to the one shown above were installed and programmed with digital impressions of everyone on the payroll.

And that should have put a stop to that little scam.

But it didn't, because, six tech-savvy physicians were among the perpetrators.

One of them was this lady, twenty-nine-year-old Thauane Nunes Ferreira, shown at the moment of her arrest. Doctor Ferreira and her five cohorts rose to the challenge by casting latex impressions of their own fingerprints.

And then making sufficient copies so that one of them, acting alone, could “sign in” for all six.

The author of the scheme, according to the local cops, was Ferreira’s boss, and the head of the town’s ambulatory emergency services, Doctor Jorge Cury.

Shown here on the right, Cury was photographed when he arrived to defend himself, and his twenty-five year record with the municipality, during an interview with the local cops.

They claim he was charging his colleagues about US$ 600 for every twenty-four-hour period in which they were certified as showing up for work – and didn’t.

Between their municipal salary, and the money they earned by working another job, it turned out to be a good deal for everyone concerned, except, of course, for the poor pigeons who lay around waiting for emergency treatment while the people who were supposed to be caring for them were employed elsewhere.

Cury and the others were apprehended after Ferreira was recorded on video, one fine morning, using one phony finger after another to register the arrival on-shift of the entire gang.

Every member of which was working elsewhere - and quickly identified through (duh!) their fingerprints.

Leighton - Monday