A woman who deliberately sawed off her hand has been jailed for insurance fraud.
Julija Adlesic, 22, from Slovenia, agreed with her boyfriend to sever her left hand above the wrist to claim £700,000.
But investigators found they had signed contracts with five insurance companies a year earlier.
Her boyfriend was sentenced to three years in prison while his father received a one-year suspended sentence.
Adlesic was given two years behind bars. In hospital, Adlesic said she injured herself while sawing branches.
Authorities said the trio left the hand behind to ensure the disability was permanent, but police recovered it and it was reattached.
Prosecutors said that days before the incident, Adlesic’s partner searched online for information about how artificial hands work.
During the trial, Adlesic claimed innocence. ‘No one wants to be crippled,’ she told the court.
‘My youth has been destroyed. Only I know how it happened.’